512 



OLEA.QIJfO"US PLAOTS. 



Pine}^ tallow ia obtained from the fruit of the Vateria Indica, a 

 large and quick-growing tree, abundant in Malabar and Canara. 

 It is a white solid oil, fusible at a temperature of 97 degrees, and 

 makes excellent candles, especially when saponified and distilled in 

 the manner now adopted with palm oil, &c. It has one great 

 advantage over coco-nut oil, that the candles made of it do not 

 give out any suffocating acrid vapors when extinguished, as those 

 made with the latter oil do. 



An oil is produced from the inner shell of the cashew-nut 

 (Anacardium occidentale var. indicuni), in the East. 



In Japan a kind of butter, called mijo, is obtained from a species 

 of the Dolichos bean {Doliclios soja). 



The kernel of the seeds of the tallow tree of China, Stillingia 

 sehifera, an evergreen shrub, contains an oil, which, when expressed, 

 consolidates through the cold to the consistence of tallow, and by 

 boiling becomes as hard as bees' wax. The plant also yields a 

 bland oil. A similar fatty product is obtained from a shrub in 

 British Gruiana, the Myristica (Virol a) set if era. 



Oil is obtained in South America from the sand box tree (^Ilura 

 crepitans) , and from the Garapa guianensis. 



A fatty oil is obtained in Demerara from the seeds of the butter 

 tree, Pekea (?) JBassia hutyrosa, and also from the Saouari (P. 

 tuberculosa) . 



The fleshy seeds contained in the woody capsules of the Mon- 

 key pot {Lecythis Tahucajo), which derive their generic name from 

 their similarity to an oil jar, are common in the West India Islands 

 and South America, and yield a considerable quantity of oil. 



The seeds of the plants of the cucumber family frequently sup- 

 ply a bland oil, which is used in the East as a lamp oil and for 

 cooking. Among the vegetable oils imported into Ningpo, and 

 other Chinese ports, from Shantong, Leatong, and Teisin, are oil 

 of teuss, obtained from green and dried peas ; black oil of the 

 fruit of the tree /^'m (?) and oil from the pea of suchau. 



The seeds of Spergula sativa, a large, smooth-seeded variety of 

 the common cow spurrey, which is cultivated in Elanders as a 

 pasture grass and green crop, afford, on expression, a good lamp oil. 



A pale brownish yellow oil is obtained from the seeds of Car- 

 tJiao7ius tinctorius, in Bombay ; the seeds contain about 28 per cent, 

 of oil. 



Excellent oil is expressed in various parts of India from the 

 seeds of different species of Sinapis, especially from the black 

 mustard seed. S. glauca, S. dichotorna, and S. juncea are ex- 

 tensively cultivated in the East for their oil. The Erysimmn per- 

 foliatum is cultivated in Japan for its oil-seeds. 



A beautiful pale yellow oil is procured from the seeds of the 

 angular-leaved physic nut, Jatroplia curcas, a shrub which is often 

 employed in the tropics as a fence for enclosures. It is used by 

 the natives in medicine and as a lamp oil. About 700 tons of this 

 oil was imported into Liverpool in 1850 from Lisbon, for the 

 purpose of dressing cloth, burning, &c. 



