192 Oflober 1748. 



OBober the 13th. There is a plant here, 

 from the berries of which they make a kind 

 of wax or tallow, and for that reafon the 

 Swedes call it the Tallow Jhrub. The J5«- 

 g/i/h call the fame tree the Candleberry-tree, 

 or Bayberry-bujh ; and Dr. Linnteus gives 

 it the name of Myrica cerifera. It grows 

 abundantly on a wet foil, and it feems to 

 thrive particularly well in the neighbour- 

 hood of the fea, nor have I ever found it 

 high up in the country far from the fea. 

 The berries grow abundantly on the female 

 fhrub, and look as if flower had been 

 ftrewed upon them. They are gathered 

 late in autumn, being ripe about that time, 

 and are then thrown into a kettle or pot 

 full of boiling water j by this means their 

 fat melts out, floats at the top of the water 

 and may be fkimmed off into a veflfel ; 

 with the fkimming they go on till there is 

 no tallow left. The tallow as foon as it is 

 congealed, looks like common tallow or 

 wax, but has a dirty green colour ; it is for 

 that reafon melted over again, and refined, 

 by which means it acquires a fine and pret- 

 ty tranfparent green colour : this tallow is 

 dearer than common tallow, but cheaper 

 than wax. In Philadelphia they pay a mil- 

 ling Penjyhania currency, for a pound of 

 this tallow -, but a pound of common tallow 



only 



