NATURAL 
questing him to inform me whether 
there are several species of it: he 
was so obliging as to answer me 
that Ayton distinguished two, name- 
ly:—. 
9. The myrica cerifera angusti- 
folia, which is a native of Louisiana. 
This is a delicate tree, is reared 
with difficulty in our green-houses ; 
its seed is smaller than that of the 
other. 
2. The myrica cerifera latifolia, 
which grows in Pensylvania, Caro- 
Jina, and Virginia; it is not so high 
as the other, and thrives perfectly 
well in France. 
Both of these myrice are culti- 
_ vated in the museum of plants, and 
in the garden of Messrs. Cels and 
Lemonier. M. Michault admits a 
third species of myrica cerifera, 
which he calls dwarf wax trec,, M. 
Ventenat thinks that wax may be 
obtained from all the myrice. 
The authors who haye treated of 
these trees, at some length, are Mar- 
shall,’ translated by Leserme, Le- 
page, Duprat, and Toscan,: libra- 
rian of the Museum of Natural His- 
tory. A memoir inserted by the 
latter in his work entitled, L’Ami 
de ta Nature, describes the manner 
in which the vegetable wax is ob- 
tained in the colonies. 
“¢ Towards the end of autumn,” 
says he, ‘* when the berries are 
ripe, a man quits his house, with 
his family, and betakes himself to 
some island, or spot on the sea- 
coast, where the wax trees grow in 
abundance. He carries with him 
pots for boiling the berries, and a 
hatchet for building a cabin to shel- 
ter him during his residence there, 
which usually continues three or four 
weeks; he then fells trees, and cons 
structs a hut, whilst his children 
gather the berries. A tree tolera- 
HISTORY. 805. 
bly. produétive, yields about seven 
pounds. When asuflicient quantity 
of berries is collected, the family 
‘employs itself in extracting the wax. 
A certain portion of the berries is 
put into the pot, and a sufficient 
quantity of water is poured on them 
until it rises about six inches above 
them. ‘The whole is boiled, and 
the berries are stirred and pressed, 
from time to time, against the sides 
of the vessel, that the wax may be 
the more easily detached. Soon 
after it is seen floating on the sur- 
face in the form of grease, which is 
collected with a spoon, and is strain- 
ed through a coarse cloth, to sepa 
rate any impurities that may be 
mixed with it. When no more wax 
is detached, the berries are taken 
out with a ladle, and fresh ones are 
put into the same water, observing 
to renew it entirely at the 2nd or 3rd 
time, and even to add boiling water in 
proportion as it evaporates, that the 
operation may not be impeded. 
When a certain quantity of wax has 
been thus colleéted, it is put to drain 
on a piece of Jinen, in order to 
separate from it the water with 
which it is still mixed. It is then 
dried and melted, strained a second 
time to render it perfeétly pure, and 
is made into cakes. Four pounds 
of berries yield about a pound of 
wax: that which is first detached is 
generally yellow; but in the latter 
boilings, the pellicle with which the 
stone of the berry is covered gives 
it a green tinge.” 
Kalm, the traveller, in speaking 
of vegetable wax, says, that in the 
country where the wax tree grows, 
they make excellent soap of it, 
which washes linen exquisitely white. 
Such was the knowledge we pos- 
sessed of the myrice, or, at least, no 
other observation had been publish- 
3F 3 ed 
