A name given to various trees yielding substances resembling tallow; spec. a. Stillingia sebifera, a euphorbiaceous tree of China, cultivated also in India and the warmer parts of America for the fatty covering of its seeds; b. Pentadesma butyracea, a guttiferous tree of Sierra Leone, also called butter and tallow tree (BUTTER sb.1 5); c. Vateria indica (N.O. Dipterocarpaceæ) of Malabar; d. = tallow-wood (TALLOW sb. 5 c).
1704. Petiver, Gazophyl., IV. xxxiv. Ricinus Chinensis Sebifera … China Tallow-tree.
1856. Art Jrnl. Illustr. Catal., II. p. vi/1. The tallow-tree of China, the seeds of which furnish a fatty matter manufactured … into candles.
c. 1865. Letheby, in Circ. Sc., I. 95/1. A solid oil … is obtained from the tallow-tree of Java—probably a species of Bassia.
1887. Moloney, Forestry W. Afr., 279. Butter or Tallow tree of West Africa (Pentadesma butyracea, Don).—Fruits yield a yellow greasy juice when cut, which is mixed by the Negroes with their food.
