fT ae 
B Myrtus Brabantice fimilis Carolinienpis, baccata as racemofo fefili, 
monopyreno. 
The Candle-berry Myrtle. 
Thefe are but fmall trees, or thrubs, about twelve feet high, with crooked ftems branching. 
forth near the ground irregularly: the leaves are long, narrow, and fharp-pointed.. Some trees 
have moft of their leaves ferrated, others not. In May, the {mall branches are alternately and 
| thick fet with oblong tufts of very {mall flowers, refembling in form and fize the catkins of the 
hafel-tree, and coloured with red and green; thefe are fucceeded -by fmall clufters of blue 
berries, clofe connected like bunches of grapes : ‘the kernel is inclofed in an oblong hard ftone, 
incruftated ‘over with an unctuous, mealy fubftance; which is what yields the wax whereof 
candles are made in the following manner : | 
~ In November and December, at which time the berries are ripe, it is cuftomary for a man 
to remove with his family, from his own home, to fome ifland or fand-bank near the fea where 
_ thefe trees moft abound, taking with him kettles to boil the berries i in; he builds a hut with 
palmeto leaves, for the fhelter of himfelf and family while mo = which is commonly three 
or four weeks. 
The man cuts down the trees, while the children ftrip off Se berries into a pottage-pot, and 
having put water to them, they are boiled till the oil floats, which is fkimmed off into another 
| veflel ; and this is repeated till there rifes no more oil: this when cold hardens to the confiftence 
of wax, and is of a dirty-green colour; but they boil it again, and clarify ‘it in braG kettles, 
which gives it a tranfparent greennefs. Thefe candles burn a long time, and yield a grateful 
_ fmell; people ufually add a fourth part of tallow, which makes them burn clearer. 
There grows in Carolina another kind of this tree with broader leaves. 
The wax with which thefe berries are covered is no {mall prefervative to them in their paffage 
5 a America: fo that being fown thick in pans, and affifted by the moderate heat of a hot. 
S bed, they feldom fail of coming up thick: as their ftems are very flender while young, great : 
=n is required in tranfplanting them, which fhould be clofe, that they may the better defend 
‘one another from the cold in winter, as well as from the {corching heat of the fun in fummer. 
_ ‘They are very hard when raifed, and will endure our fharpeft winters. 
42. Acacia, 
