224 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



Sp. 2. The Bay Berry. Wax Myrtle. Myrica cerifera. L. 

 Figured in Bigelow's American Medical Botany, III, Plate 43. 



This is a crooked shrub, found growing in interrupted, mini- 

 ature forests, in every variety of situation and soil ; from dry, 

 rocky hills to sandy plains and the borders of marshes. It is 

 from two to six or seven feet high, very irregular, rarely erect, 

 giving off crooked or angled, rough branches, in bunches of 

 three or four. The bark is brownish gray, with clouds of a 

 lighter hue, dotted with round, or oblong, horizontal, white dots. 

 The leaves are irregularly scattered, often crowded or tufted, 

 nearly sessile, obovate, lance-shaped, abruptly pointed, wedge- 

 shaped at base, wavy, entire or with a few serratures, some- 

 times revolute on the edge, and whiter and sprinkled with yel- 

 lowish dots beneath. The barren flowers, which expand with 

 the leaves in May, are in stiff, erect catkins, less than an inch 

 long, on the sides of the last year's branches. The scales are 

 roundish or rhomboidal, somewhat loosely arranged, and con- 

 tain each three or four stamens, often partially united by twos, 

 and surmounted by anthers divided to their base. The catkins 

 of the fertile flowers, which are on a different plant, are much 

 smaller, erect, made up of imbricated, oval, pointed scales, con- 

 taining an ovary surmounted by two prominent, awl-shaped 

 stigmas. On each matured anient are from four to nine, dry, 

 waxy berries or drupes, on very short footstalks. They are at 

 first green, afterwards blackish, and finally white, consisting of 

 a stone covered with black grains invested with wax. The 

 fruit-stalks continue to the second or third year, twelve or more 

 arranged spirally on a shoot. The berries, leaves and recent 

 shoots are fragrant with a balsamic odor which seems to come 

 from the minute, transparent, yellow dots with which the recent 

 shoots and under surface of the leaves are sprinkled. The 

 roots are large and somewhat spreading. 



The wax is obtained by boiling the berries in water. It rises 

 to the surface and hardens on cooling. About one third part 

 of the weight of the berries consists of wax. In Nova Scotia, 

 this wax is used extensively, instead of tallow, or mixed with 



