are employed as a black dye; its wood being hard and durable, may be
easily used for printing-blocks and various other articles; and,
finally, the refuse of the nut is employed as fuel and manure.... It
grows alike on low alluvial plains and on granite hills, on the rich
mould at the margin of canals, and on the sandy sea-beach. The sandy
estuary of Hangchan yields little else; some of the trees at this
place are known to be several hundred years old, and though
prostrated, still send forth branches and bear fruit.... They are
seldom planted where anything else can be conveniently cultivated--but
in detached places, in corners about houses, roads, canals, and
fields.'

The sebaceous matter, or vegetable tallow, is contained in the
seed-vessels of the _Stillingia_. The processes adopted for
abstracting it are of importance, and meet with due consideration in
Dr Macgowan's valuable paper. The following clear account is given of
the whole process, as practised in China:--'In midwinter, when the
nuts are ripe, they are cut off with their twigs by a sharp
crescentric knife, attached to the extremity of a long pole, which is
held in the hand, and pushed upwards against the twigs, removing at
the same time such as are fruitless. The capsules are gently pounded
in a mortar, to loosen the seeds from their shells, from which they
are separated by sifting. To facilitate the separation of the white
sebaceous matter enveloping the seeds, they are steamed in tubs,
having convex open wicker bottoms, placed over caldrons of boiling
water. When thoroughly heated, they are reduced to a mash in the
mortar, and thence transferred to bamboo sieves, kept at a uniform
temperature over hot ashes. A single operation does not suffice to
deprive them of all their tallow; the steaming and sifting are
therefore repeated. The article thus procured becomes a solid mass on