Candle-nut

Candle-nut (Aleurites triloba), a small tree of the order Euphorbiaceæ (q.v.), a native of the South Sea Islands, Madagascar, Molucca, Java, &c., which produces a heart-shaped nut with a very hard shell, and a kernel good to eat when roasted, although in a raw state it possesses in a slight degree some of the active properties so common in the Euphorbiaceæ, and is apt to cause purging and colic. It is about as large as a walnut. An excellent bland oil is procured from it, used both for food and as a lamp-oil. The inhabitants of the Society Islands, after slightly baking these nuts in an oven, and removing the shell, bore holes through the kernels, and string them on rushes, hanging them up in their houses, to be used for torches, which are made by inclosing four or five strings in a leaf of the screw-pine (Pandanus). These torches are often used in fishing by night, and burn with much brilliancy. The lampblack used in tattooing was obtained from the shell of the candle-nut. A gummy substance exudes from the candle-nut tree, which the Tahitians chew.