188 ON THE WAX TREE OF LOUISIANA. 



The raoft pro- j n the greatett abundance, and in more refpe&s than one, is 



«Ju£hve is the . , ° . 



myrica cerifera. en »t'ea to the attention of cultivators, is the myrica cerifera, 



or wax tree. 

 Its early hiftory. We read in the Hiftory of the Academy of Sciences for the 

 years 1722 and 1725, that M. Alexandre, furgeon, corre- 

 spondent with M. Marian, had obferved at Louifiana a tree of 

 the lize of a cherry tree, having the appearance of the myr- 

 tle, and bearing a grain of the fize of coriander feed. Thefe 

 grains, of a grey afli colour, contain a fmall round hard ker- 

 nel, which is covered with a (hining wax that may be ob- 

 tained by boiling the grains in water. This wax is drier and 

 more friable than ours. The inhabitants make candles of it. 

 M. Alexandre adds, " This grain is ufually of a deep and 

 beautiful lake colour, which by merely crufhing with the fin- 

 gers leaves them tinged, but this is only at a particular feafon.'* 

 The liquor in which the grain has been boiled, and from 

 whence the wax is procured, having been poured out and 

 evaporated to the confiftence of an extract, M. Alexandre 

 difcovered that it checks the molt obflinate dyfenteries. 



The advantageous properties that this tree appears to pof- 

 fefs, ought to have induced philofophers to make enquiries to 

 afcertain the various properties of the vegetable, and what 

 attention its culture might require ; it has been long confi- 

 dered merely as an object of curiofity. 



Linnaeus, in his vegetable fyftem, only mentions the wax 



tree of Virginia, myrica cerifera, the leaves lanceolated as^if 



dentated, and the flem arborefcent. 



6peciesofthe On enquiring of Cit. Ventenat, whether there were feve- 



pyrica cerifera. r al fpecies, he informed me, that Ay ton diflinguillies two, 



viz. 



1. The myrica cerifera angufiifolia, which grows in Loui- 

 fiana. This tree is very delicate, it flowers with difficulty in 

 our green houfes; and its grains are fmaller than thofe of the 

 following. 



2. The myrica cerifera latifolia, which grows in Penfyl- 

 vania, Carolina, and Virginia, does not rife fo high as the 

 former ; it is perfectly naturalized in France. Thefe tw,o 

 myrica are diaecous. 



They are both cultivated in the Mufeum des Plantes, and in 

 the gardens of Citizens Cels and Lemonier (at Paris.) 



Cit. 



