,i6 CHINA. 



mon here, and many other parts o^ China ; and grows as high 

 as a tall cherry tree ; the fruit opens Hke a chefnut, and contains 

 kernels enveloped witii a pulp, which has all the properties of 

 tallow ; excellent candks, void of any fmell, are made of it when 

 melted ; it alfo Uipplies the lamps with oil ; Dti Haide^ gives us 

 the proccfs. I le alfo delcrihes a tree, called Pe-la-JJju, which pro- 

 duces wax ; a kind of little worm fallens on its leaves, where- 

 with being covered, in a Ihort time they form combs of wax, 

 much fmaller than the honey combs ; this wax is very hard 

 and fliining, and confiderably dearer than bees-wax. When 

 thefe worms arc accuftomed to the trees of any diftri6t, they 

 never quit them, but on particular occafions ; if once they re- 

 move from a place they never return, fo that others muft be pro- 

 cured in their ftead, there being merchants \\ ho deal in them. 



1 cannot afccrtain the Genus or i'pecies of this tree. There is 

 a Myrica cerifera in North America that affords a very good 

 wax. Cafe/by i. tab. 69 ; and another at the Cape of Good Hope, 

 Journal Hijiorique, Sec. p. 88. tab. oppofite to the page ; Spar- 

 man i. p. 346. Myrica JEthiopica Lin. Mr. Sparman fays, that 

 the berries are covered at a certain time of the year with a 

 greenifli, wax-like and tallowy fubftance, which he fuppofes to 

 be the effedt of infedts : of this the natives make candles. I 

 fliould think it the fame with the fpecies juft defcribed ; but, 

 that Du Halde fays, the infedls in the Chineje plants depofit their 

 wax on the leaves. In the ^thiopica it is found on what Lin' 

 nteus calls cones. 



Mr. Cunningham alfo mentions the Syringa Arabica of Ge- 



* Vol. i. p. 319. 



rard') 



