WAX. 



language. " There is hardly bees- wax enough 

 produced in England to answer the demand for 

 lip-salve alone; but importation from America 

 supplies all our wants, for the quantity obtained 

 in that country is annually increasing." " Little 

 thinks the ball-room beauty, when the tapers are 

 almost burnt out, that the wax by whose light her 

 charms have been exalted was once hidden in 

 the bells and cups of innumerable flowers, shed- 

 ding perfume over the silent valleys of the Sus- 

 quehanna,or nodding at their own reflected colours 

 in the waters of the Potomac and Delaware." 



The uses of wax in making candles, oint- 

 ments, &c. are well known. 



According to Buffon, the bees-wax of tropical 

 climates is too soft for any but medicinal purposes. 



There is a species of wax, which is generally re- 

 garded as of vegetable origin, and which is afforded 

 by various trees, plants and fruits. The light down 

 which silvers over the surface of prunes and other 

 stone fruits, has been shown by M. Proust to be 

 wax, the leaves and stem of the Ceroxylon also, 

 afford it in considerable quantity, if bruised and 

 boiled in water ; but the trees which afford it in 

 greatest abundance, are the Myrica cerifera angus- 

 tifolia or wax tree of Louisiana, and the Myrica 

 cerifera latifolia of Pennsylvania, Carolina, and 

 Virginia. The latter is now naturalized in France : 

 it flourishes also in the dry lands of Prussia, and, 



