Of the oil-giving plants there are many. The _káchang góring_ of the Malay countries, or, as it is indifferently termed by the Javans, _káchang chína_, _pénden_, or _tána_, is cultivated almost exclusively for the purpose of obtaining its oil, near the capitals of the principal districts, both central and maritime. It requires a very strong soil for its support, and as the cultivation is profitable, the lands which produce it yield high rents. It is never employed as an article of food by itself; but what remains of it after the oil is expressed, forms an ingredient for the seasoning of rice, in one of the common dishes of the natives. The oil is obtained by grinding the seeds between two grooved cylinders, and then separating it either by expression or boiling. The former is chiefly used by the Chinese, and yields as a refuse the oil-cakes, which I formerly observed were employed as manure in some of the gardens near Batavia. Where these cylinders are not in use, the following mode is adopted: the nut having been taken from the ground, is dried by exposure to the sun for a few days; after which the kernel is extracted, and reduced, by successive beatings in the Javan _lésung_ or mortar, to a grain sufficiently small to pass through a sieve; it is then boiled by steam, and having been allowed to cool for twenty-four hours, is put into a basket, and in that state placed between two oblong planks, which, being joined together at one extremity, are forced to meet at the other, on the principle of a lemon-squeezer. The oil exuding from the interstices of the basket is caught on an ox's hide, placed below to convey it to an earthen receiver. The _járak_, or palma christi, is cultivated in nearly the same manner as maize, and thrives on similar soils: from this plant is obtained most of the oil for burning in lamps. In extracting the oil from this as well as from the cocoa-nut, various processes are employed, most of which tend to accelerate the rancidity of the oil. A pure cold drawn oil is not known. In the cocoa-nut, if the oil is obtained by expression, the broken nuts from which it is made are exposed till putrefaction commences. In other cases they are grated, and water being poured upon them, the parts mixed with it form _sánten_, a white milky fluid, which is evaporated till the oil alone remains. As this process requires much time and fuel, a more economical method is often resorted to: the milky fluid is left exposed for a night, when the oily parts rise to the top, and being separated from the water are purified by a very short boiling.