On the Varnish and Varnish Trees of India. 97 



Transactions between the Abbe Mazeas, Mr Philip Miller, 

 and Mr John Ellis. Mr Miller was of opinion that the Caro- 

 lina toxicodendron was the same plant with that which Ksemp- 

 fer describes as yielding the varnish of Japan, but Mr Ellis 

 seems to have proved very clearly that this was not the case. 

 This shrub is known in Japan by the name of Sitx, or Sitz- 

 dju, and was chiefly cultivated in the provinces of Tsi, * 

 KocTao, and Fijo. According to Kaempfer it is thus obtained. 



They first slit the bark of the branches of the shrub in 

 different pkces with a knife. From these wounds there flows 

 out a white clammy juice, which soon turns black when ex- 

 posed to the air. The same juice is contained in the leaves 

 and stalks of the plant. This juice has no other tasteable 

 quality but that of heating without turning sour ; but it is 

 dangerous to handle, being of a poisonous nature. When 

 they make these incisions in the branches of the trees, they 

 place wooden vessels under them to receive the juice as it 

 drops from the wounds ; and when these become dry, and will 

 afford no more juice, they make fresh wounds in the stems of 

 the shrubs near the roots, so that all the juice is drawn out of 

 them. They then cut down the shrubs to the ground, and 

 from the stock new stems arise, which in three years are fit to 

 tap again. This native varnish scarcely wants any prepara- 

 tion, but if any dirt should happen to mix with it, it is strain- 

 ed through a coarse gauze to cleanse it. It is then put into 

 wooden vessels, covering it with a little of the oil called toi, 

 and stretching a skin over it to prevent it from evaporating. 

 Kaempfer then goes on to state, that other sorts of varnish are 

 collected in Siam, Corsama, &c. inferior in quahty, and pro- 

 duced by other plants ; but one of the best he says is pro- 

 duced from the Anacardium, or Cashew Nut tree. This lat- 

 ter varnish he says is used without any mixture for staining 

 black. 



The Sylhet varnish which we have received from India was 

 made to order for Mr Swinton. It consists of two parts of 

 the juice of the Bhela, (the Seme-Carpus anacai^dium, the 

 tree w^hich bears the marking nuts of India,) and one part of 



* May not the name of Tsi-tzi given to the Rangoon varnish have been 

 originally applied to the varnish from Tsi or Sitz-Tsi ? 

 VOL. VIII. NO. I JAN. 1828. G 



