190 °N THE WAX TREE OF LOUISIANA. 



It is there ufed The traveller Kalm, fpeaking*of the vegetable wax, fays, 

 forfoap ma mg. ^ at - m ^ Q countr y w j iere t | ie wax tree g rows they make ex- 

 cellent foap of it, which walhes linen perfectly white. 

 The author ob- Such are the notions which have been formed refpe&ing 

 wax . the myrica ; at leaft no other obfervations had been published 



to my knowledge, when a naturalift favoured me with half a 

 kilogramme (17f oz. avoird.) of the vegetable wax of Loui- 

 iiana. I was defirous of making a comparative analyfis of it 

 with bees wax ; but before I undertook this work, I wilhed 

 to fee the tree and berry of the myrica. I faw this precious 

 vegetable at the Jardin des Plantes, and I wrote to Cit. 

 Defhayes, a zealous botanift, who cultivates the myrica pen- 

 fylvania at Rambouillet, to requefl him to give me fome in- 

 formation concerning it. He had the politenefs to fend me 

 an anfwer with fome of the berries, which I immediately ex- 

 amined, 

 and examines Thi s g ra j n ; s a kind of berry of the fize of a pepper corn ; 



the outfide when it is ripe and freih, is white, and covered 

 with fmall black afperities which give it the appearance of 

 fhagreen. When it is rubbed in the hands, it renders them 

 greafy or unctuous. 

 Experiments to If one of thefe little berries be ftrongly prefied, it parts 

 wax^art'me- %V1 ^ a matter refembling (larch, and mixed with fmall brown 

 chankally. round grains like fine gunpowder. The nut which remains 



bare has a very thick ligneous covering, and contains a dyco- 

 tildonous kernel. By rubbing a handful of the berries on a 

 fieve of horfe hair, I obtained a grey powder, in which the 

 eye diftinguiihes without the affiftance of a magnifying glafs, 

 the fmall brown grains I mentioned, mixed with a white 

 powder. 

 Application of I put this powder into alcohol, which with the affiftance of 

 alcohol. a flight heat ^ diflblved a n t h e wn i te par t, and left the black 



powder which I feparated. Water poured on this folution in 

 alcohol formed a precipitate that floated on the furface of the 

 liquid. I melted this and obtained a yellow wax refembling 

 that fent me from Louifiana. This experiment compleatly 

 proves that the wax of the myrica is the white grumous mat- 

 ter that furrounds the ben?ies. 

 Black powder The black powder which was feparated appeared to me 



mi* Iks furface to contain the colouring principle, and I hoped alfo to find in 



it 



