TREE PRODUCTS 147 



improvement, and not unlikely new uses would 

 be found if it were available in larger quantity. 



Another tribe that furnishes a product of a 

 unique quality is that represented by a familiar 

 wild shrub known in the Eastern States as the 

 waxberry or candleberry (Myrica carolinensis) 

 and sometimes also spoken of as the bayberry 

 owing to the fragrance of its leaves. 



This shrub bears an abundance of small berries 

 from which may be extracted a quantity of hard 

 greenish fragrant wax, which was formerly much 

 prized for the making of candles, and which has 

 a value for the other uses to which wax is put. 



Many years ago, while traveling in the East, I 

 found a candleberry bush that was of compact 

 growth and that produced an unusually large 

 crop of waxy berries. Seed was collected and 

 brought to California, and for several years it 

 was worked upon, until by selection a variety 

 was developed that produced at least ten times 

 as many berries and ten times as much wax as 

 the average wild plant. At the same time I 

 experimented with a Japanese member of the 

 genus known as M. rubra, and also with the 

 California species, M. californica, which is a 

 tree growing forty to fifty feet in height. 



The endeavor was made to cross the three 

 Myricas in the hope of producing new varieties 



