OIL PLANT. 
175 
which might be translated, “ the oil-bearing tea plant a very expres- 
sive name, as the plant, in general appearance, closely resembles the 
tea, and yields oil. It was brought into this country by the former 
Embassy, and considered as the Camellia sesanqua of authors, from 
which, however, I apprehend it is very distinct.* We sometimes 
found it of the magnitude of a moderate sized cherry-tree, and always 
that of a large shrub, from six to eight feet in height, and bearing a 
profusion of large single white blossoms. This circumstance gave 
an interesting and novel character to the places which it covered. 
They often looked in the distance, as if lightly clothed with snow; 
but on a nearer view, exhibited one immense garden. 
The Camellia oleifera seems to flourish best in a red sandy soil, 
on which few other plants will grow. The Chinese cultivate it in 
large plantations, and procure from its seed a pure esculent oil by 
a very easy process. The seeds are first reduced to a coarse powder 
by one of several methods. Sometimes they are pounded in a large 
mortar, by a weight at the end of a lever, acted upon by the cogs of 
a water-wheel. At others, they are crushed by a horizontal wheel, 
having small perpendicular wheels, shod with iron, fixed to its cir- 
cumference, and acting in a groove lined with the same metal. 
* See Appendix. 
