a58 Memoir tn the IVaX'Tret 



the fulphuric acid, taking care to pour in water gradually, at 

 diHerent periods, till there is no longer a fenfible difcngage- 

 nient of muriatic gas. A large quantity of water is then to 

 be added, and the mixture muft be ftirred with a rod. By 

 reft, the infoluble fulphate of lime is precipitated, and the 

 bleached wax will float at the furface. 



I fhall terminate this memoir with fomc obfervations on 

 the culture of the myrica. 



C. Defliaves, to whom I am indebted for the trials I 

 made, has obferved, for feveral years, the wax-trees of Rani- 

 bouillet. What he wrote to me on this fubjcdl is as fol- 

 lows : 



*' The Mjrrlca latifol'ta (Ayton) is here abfokitcly in its 

 native country : it is in the foil proper for it; that is to fay, 

 in fandy and blackifli turf. We have fixteen wax-trees in 

 full vigour. They are four, five, and fix feet in height : one 

 male is feven feet. The feeds are abundant almolt every year: 

 I fay alnioft, becaufe in fome years they fail. The fruit in 

 general is in that part of the Englifh garden affigncd to it. 



*' The culture requires no care. Every year a great num- 

 ber of flioots, which proceed from the roots of the large trees, 

 are pulled up. Thefe are fo many new flinibs, which are 

 then planted at the diflance of a yard from each other. 



** The feeds may be fown in beds in the fpring, and then 

 tranfplanted : but this method is tedious. The myrica will 

 fuccced wherever it finds a light foil, fomewhat nioift. How 

 many provinces are there where the cultivation of this fln-ub 

 would be ufeful, and employ land alnioll negltdted 1 



*' What advantages may not agriculture hope for from fuch 

 an acquifilion, fince Prnffia has fo long feen the myrica 

 flourifti in its dry, fandy plains V 



C. Thiebault, of the Academy of Berlin, gave me the fol- 

 lowing interefting note on this fubjeCl : 



" The late M. SjiJzer, author of a general di6lionarv of the 

 fine arts, had obtained from Frederic the Great a pretty cx- 

 tenfive piece of walle land on the banks of the Spree, at the 

 diftance of half a league from Berlin, in a place called the 

 Moabites. However barren this ground, which prcfcnted 

 only a very thin, poor turf, above fine light fand, might be, 

 M. Sulzcr converteJ it into a very agreeable garden, worthy 

 of a philofopher. Among other remarkable things he formed 

 a plantation of foreign trees, confining of fwQ prcttv long 

 alleys running eaft and wvW. Fn thefe ^illeys there were not 

 two trees of the fame kind following each other. In the al- 

 leys moll expofed to the north he plunicd nmic but the highcft 

 trees, capable of wiihltauding the feverity of the climate. 



Hence, 



