SECT. XIV. WAX. 427 



by apothecaries or perfumers, under the name of dis* 

 tilled waters or essences ; as well as employed also 

 in the manufacture of varnishes and pigments. 



SECTION xiv. 



Wax. 



ON the upper surface of the leaves of many trees 

 there may often be observed a sort of varnish, which 

 when separated by certain chemical processes is 

 found to possess all the properties of bees'- wax, and 

 is consequently a vegetable wax. 



It exudes, however, from several other parts of 

 the plant besides the leaf, and assumes a more waxy 

 and concrete form, as from the catkins of the Pop- 

 lar, the Alder, and the Fir ; from the fruit of the 

 Myrica cerifera and Croton seblferum ; but particu- 

 larly from the antherae of the flowers, from which it 

 is probable that the bees extract it unaltered. It 

 was the opinion of Reaumur, however, that the 

 pollen undergoes a digestive process in the stomach 

 of the bee before it is converted into wax, though 

 a late writer on the subject endeavours to prove that 

 the wax is elaborated / from the honey extracted by 

 the bee, and not from the pollen.* It is found also 

 in the interior of many seeds, from which it is ex- 

 tracted by means of pounding them and boiling them 

 \\\ water. The wax is melted and swims on the top. 

 * Hubcr, Linnasan Trans. voL iv. 



