158 AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY. 



15. The solid Japanese plant-fats, especially the most important 

 ones, which are obtained from the fruit of several sorts of sumach, 

 bear the name R6. In foreign trade it is called Japanese wax {Cet'a 

 Japonicci)y vegetable wax, and Japanese plant-wax ; but its resem- 

 blance to beeswax (Jap. Mitsu-ro) is merely external, and not of 

 chemical foundation. It is similar to beeswax in appearance, con- 

 sistency and the uses to which it is applied, but in its composition, 

 like all other fats, it is a mixture of several fatty-acid glycerides.^ 



Among the six species of the genus sumach (fam. Anacardiacece) 

 known in Japan, there are two of foreign importation, which are 

 cultivated in different parts of the country and have acquired great 

 importance, viz., Rhus vernicifera, D. C, and Rh. siucedanea, L. 

 The latter species probably originated in the Riu-kiu Islands, but 

 it cannot be proved to a certainty that either is indigenous. The 

 latter kind requires a milder climate than the former, and hence 

 flourishes only in the warmer parts of the country, 35° N. lat., and 

 135° E. long, being, roughly, the northern and eastern limits of its 

 cultivation. The object of cultivating it is to obtain plant-tallow 

 from its fruit. Rhus vernicifera is grown for similar purposes in 

 the colder parts of the island of Honshiu almost to the Tsugaru- 

 strait, but more on account of the lacquer obtained from its sap.^ 



The fruits of the wild species of Japanese sumach, viz., Yama- 

 urushi {Rh. sylvestris, S. and Z.), Nurude or Fushi-no-ki {Rh. senii- 

 alata^ Murr.), Tsuta-uruslii (77/. Toxicodendron, L.), and Rh. tricho- 

 carpa, Miq., also contain solid fat, but in a less degree; but, with the 

 exception of the^ first named, are never employed. 



Rhus vernicifera, D. C. {R. vernix, Thunb.), the lacquer-tree, Jap. 

 Urushi-no-ki, attains a height of 8-10 m., and with an age of forty 

 and more years, frequently a girth of I m. During the first six 

 years its growth is pretty quick, in favourable soil amounting to 

 50-80 cm. annually ; then, however, it diminishes to an average of 

 25-50 cm. a year. The greenish yellow wood at its heart, which 

 looks like Morus, Madura, and other related genera, has therefore 

 a relatively great weight. The younger, lighter wood is white, the 

 bark is of a light grey, cracking with increasing age. 



Lacquer-trees grow up straight and have fairly symmetrical 

 crowns. But when old their branches are too few and their foliage 

 too light and thin for beauty. On the other hand, young specimens, 

 under fifteen years old, can be grown to advantage as foliage-trees 



^ An excellent treatise on this subject was published by A. Meyer of the 

 Pharmaceutical Institute of the University of Strassburg, in Reichardt's " Archiv 

 der Pharmacie," Bd. XII., Heft 2, 1879, under the title " Ueber den Japantalg." 

 I made several contributions to this myself, e.g., the drawing of the press, as 

 the author conscientiously acknowledges. From the same institution, under the 

 further encouragement of its deserving head, Prof Fliickiger, there has appeared 

 a smaller essay by Dr. Buri, as more or less a supplement to that treatise, and 

 with the same title, in the same journal. Band XII., Heft 5. 



2 Details as to the manufacture of this pecuhar, costly material, will be found 

 in the section devoted to the lacquer industry. 



