VEGETABLE TALLOW AND WAX. 



281 



also produced by a Dipterocarpous plant {Vateria Indica); 

 both are imported from India^ but the former^ instead of 

 being white^ is of a yellowish-green colour^ evidently from 

 the admixture of some balsamic resin^ which also gives an 

 agreeable balsamic odor this substance. Its chief value 

 is for the manufacture of candles^ which give out a s\\eet 

 smell in burning. It resembles ordinary tallow in its con- 

 sistency^ but small particles appear through its substance^ 

 having a resinous lustre. 



Yegetable Tallow (Chinese, from Canton) is procured 

 from the seeds of Croton sehifenm (Nat. Ord. Euphorhia- 

 eecB) . This kind is very different from the last, being of a 

 cream-white colour, a tallowy odour, hard and brittle, and 

 usually flaky, or in plates about an inch thick, or in lumps 

 bearing the form of some vessel into which it has been 

 melted ; the flakes are apparently caused by different melt- 

 ings being poured into the same pan. It becomes brown 

 by exposure, and evidently contains some acid in abun- 

 dance, probably crotonic ; only a few small lots have been 

 imported experimentally. 



Yegetable Wax (South American). — A singular pro- 

 duct from the leaves of Coryplia cerifera, the Carnauba Palm, 

 (Nat. Ord. Falmacece,) (Plate VIII. fig. 38.) 



