'

There is a separate process for pressing the oil, which is carried on
at the same time. The kernels yield about 30 per cent. of oil, which
answers well for lamps. It is also employed for various purposes in
the arts, and has a place in the Chinese pharmacopoeia, because of its
quality of changing gray hair to black, and other imaginary virtues.

The husks are used to feed the furnaces; the residuary tallow-cakes
are also employed for fuel--a small quantity remaining ignited a whole
day. The oil-cake forms a valuable manure, and is of course carefully
used for this purpose in China, where so very great regard is paid to
the collecting of manures. This kind is particularly used for
enriching tobacco-fields, its powerful qualities recommending it for
such a scourging crop.

With regard to the uses of the vegetable tallow, Dr Macgowan observes:
'Artificial illumination in China is generally procured by vegetable
oils, but candles are also employed.... In religious ceremonies, no
other material is used. As no one ventures out after dark without a
lantern, and as the gods cannot be acceptably worshipped without
candles, the quantity consumed is very great. With an unimportant
exception, the candles are always made of what I beg to designate as
vegetable stearine. When the candles, which are made by dipping, are
of the required diameter, they receive a final dip into a mixture of
the same material and insect-wax, by which their consistency is
preserved in the hottest weather. They are generally coloured red,
which is done by throwing a minute quantity of alkanet-root (_Anchusa
tinctoria_), brought from Shan-tung, into the mixture. Verdigris is
sometimes employed to dye them green.' We are not aware that the
vegetable tallow has as yet been imported into Britain to any extent.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] 'Uses of the _Stillingia Sebifera_, or Tallow-Tree, &c., by D. J.
Macgowan, M. D., &c.' The substance of the same communication was laid
before the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, 12th February, 1852, having
been communicated by Dr Coldstream.

THE TOLLMAN'S STORY.

Some local travellers of about twenty-five years' practice, may still
remember the keeper of a toll-bar on one of the western approaches to
Glasgow, known in his neighbourhood as English John. The prefix was
given, I believe, in honour of his dialect, which was remarkably pure
and polished for one of his station in those days; and the solution of
that probl