1NSECT-WHITE-WAX OF CHINA. 



67 



When in China, he obtained from the province of Sze-tchuen, 

 through some Catholic Missionaries, a living plant which he 

 was assured was that on which the wax-insect is found. 1 

 This plant, which is now in England, is a deciduous woody- 

 stemmed shrub of about 1-|- feet high. A very scanty specimen 

 of it which I possess has imparipinnate, glabrous leaves ; lateral 

 leaflets 1J to If inches long, including the petiolules, which are 

 about two lines long, elliptical, very oblique at the base, inequila- 

 teral, rather strongly serrated, penniveined and distinctly reticu- 

 lated on both sides over the surface ; terminal leaflet thrice as 

 large as the rest, nearly ovate, very unequal at the base, and 

 with a petiolule nearly an inch long. As it has not yet flowered > 

 neither the genus nor even the natural order can with certainty 

 be determined ; but judging from its leaves, the plant has much 

 similarity, as suggested by Mr. Fortune, to some species of ash 

 (Fraxinus). According to M. Julien, the plants upon which the 

 wax-insect is reputed to feed are four in number : 



1853. 



Fortune's 

 Wax-plant. 



Species of 

 Fraxinus. 



1. Niu-tching. This tree, according to M. Adolphe Brongniart 



as quoted by M. Julien, 2 is Khus succcdanea, Linn. Other M. Julien. 

 names are applied in China to the Mu-tching (literally pure- 

 virgin), as Tching-mou (pure-tree), La-chou (wax- tree). It is also 

 called Tung-tsing in common with the following. 



2. Tung-tsing. This name Mr. Fortune has informed me is 

 applied to Ligustrum lucidum, Aiton. 3 Dr. Macgowan men- 

 tions L. lucidum as the tree on which the wax-insect is reputed 

 to feed. Re'musat identifies it (under the name of Toung-tlising) 



1 See Gardener's Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette, Aug. 21, 1852. 



A solitary leaflet found in Mr. Lockhart's specimen of wax so obviously 

 corresponds with those of Mr. Fortune's plants, that I see little reason to 

 doubt the fact of its being one of those which support the Coccus sinensis. 



2 Julien in Comptes Rendus, April 13, 1840, p. 619. 



3 Mr. Fortune adds, however, that although he has seen the tree in great 

 abundance in districts of Chekiang and Kiangnan, he has never observed 

 the wax-insect upon it. Indeed, I am myself of opinion that the state- 

 ment that the wax-insect feeds upon Ligustrum lucidum is altogether 

 erroneous ; for although this tree is certainly called Tung-tsing, yet Du 

 Halde's assertion is that the wax-tree has branches and leaves resembling 

 those of the Tung-tsing, while the fruits of the two trees are different, 



I 2 



