L54 4 5

This statement shows that from a plant, which is indigenous to the
colony, and might he cultivated to almost any extent, and mostly on
soils unavailable for other purposes, an article of great export
could be derived at a comparatively small expense; it is with that
view that I desire to direct public attention more prominently to
it.

In the Museum of the Royal Botanic Gardens, at Kew, wax is shown as
scraped from the trunk of the wax palm (_Ceroxylon andicola_), and
candles made from it, as also some made of acorns and closely
resembling common tallow. Concrete milk and butter made from the Shea
butter tree, and others growing in Para, are also exhibited.

Wax candles have been made from the seeds of _Myrica macrocarpa_ in
Colombia, and also from vegetable wax in Java. Some of these are to be
seen in the Museum of the Pharmaceutical Society of London.

CASTOR OIL PLANT.

Castor oil is expressed from the seeds of _Ricinus communis (Palma
Christi)_, a plant with petale-palmate leaves, which is found native
in Greece, Africa, the South of Spain, and the East Indies, and is
cultivated in the West Indies, as well as in North and South America.
In the temperate and northern parts of Europe, the plant is an
herbaceous annual, of from three to eight feet high; in the more
southern parts it becomes scrubby and even attains an height of twenty
feet; while in India it is often a tree thirty to forty feet high. The
best oil is obtained by expression from the seeds without heat, and is
hence called "cold drawn oil." A large quantity of oil may be produced
by boiling the seeds, but it is less sweet and more apt to become
rancid than that procured by expression.

The _Palma Christi_ grows continuously for about four years, and
becomes a large tree in constant bearing, ripening its rich clusters
of beans in such profusion, that 100 bushels may be obtained annually
from an acre, and their product of oil two gallons per bushel.

There are several species, all of which yield oil of an equally good
quality. A shrubby variety is common in South Australia, and other
parts of New Holland. _Ricinus lividus_ is a native of the Cape of
Good Hope. It is a hardy plant, of the easiest culture, and will
thrive in almost any soil, whether in the burning plains or the
coldest part of the mountains. The seed should be planted in the
tropics in September, singly, and at the distance of