From the _áren_ (sagurus rumphii), which grows abundantly in many parts of Java, a substance is prepared, similar in all respects to the true sago of the Eastern Islands. It is particularly useful in times of scarcity, when large numbers of these valuable trees are felled, for the purpose of collecting the pith. The sap yields an excellent sugar of a dark colour, in common use with the natives. The wine or _túwak_ (toddy) prepared from it is superior to that obtained from most other palms.
A very agreeable pulp is prepared from the pith of this tree, pounded with water, and exposed one night to spontaneous evaporation: it is eaten with palm sugar, and found by no means unpleasant by Europeans. The tuberous roots of a species of curcuma, _tému láwak_, grated and infused in water, yields a similar pulp. Both are denominated _pátí_, and daily offered for sale along the roads and in the interior.
All the varieties of the cocoa-tree, noticed on Sumatra, are to be found on Java, where its quicker and more luxuriant growth is accounted for by the superiority of soil. The principal varieties of the cocoa-nut are enumerated in one of the early volumes of the Batavian Transactions.
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.