Miscellaneous . 155 



Prior to the thirteenth century, bees' -wax was employed as a coating 

 for candles ; but about that period the white insect-wax was dis- 

 covered, since which time that article has been wholly superseded by 

 the more costly but incomparably superior product of this insect. 

 It has been described by the Abbe Grassier, Sir George Staunton, 

 and others ; but these accounts differ so widely among themselves, 

 as well as from that given by native authors, as to render further 

 inquiry desirable. 



From the description given by Grassier, entomologists have sup- 

 posed the insect which yields the Pe-la, or white wax, to be a species 

 of Coccus. Staunton, on the contrary, describes it as a species of 

 Cicada {Plata limbata). As described by Chinese writers, however, 

 it is evidently an apterous insect ; hence the inference, either that 

 there are two distinct species that produce white wax, or that the 

 insect Staunton saw was falsely represented as the elaborator of this 

 beautiful material. This, like many other interesting questions in the 

 natural history of this portion of the globe, must remain unsolved, 

 until restrictions on foreign intercourse are greatly relaxed, or wholly 

 removed. In the mean time, native writers may be consulted with 

 advantage ; and from the chief of these, the Pun-tsau and Kiunfangpu, 

 two herbals of high authority, the subjoined account has been prin- 

 cipally derived. The animal feeds on an evergreen shrub or tree, 

 Ligustrum lucidum, which is found throughout central China from 

 the Pacific to Thibet, but the insect chiefly abounds in the province 

 of Sy'Chuen. It is met with also in "Yunnan, Hunan, and Hupeh. 

 A small quantity of a superior description is produced in Kinhwa, 

 Chehkiang province. Much attention is paid to the cultivation of 

 this tree ; extensive districts of country are covered with it, and it 

 forms an important branch of agricultural industry. In planting, 

 they are arranged like the mulberry in rows about twelve feet apart, 

 and both seeds and cuttings are employed. If the former, they are 

 soaked in water in which unhusked rice has been washed, and their 

 shells pounded off : when propagated by cuttings, branches an inch 

 in diameter are recommended as of the most suitable size. The 

 ground is ploughed semi-annually, and kept perfectly free from weeds. 

 In the third or fourth year they are stocked with the insect. After 

 the wax or insect has been gathered from the young trees, they are 

 cut down, just below the lower branches, about four feet from the 

 ground, and well manured. The branches which sprout the follow- 

 ing season are trimmed, and made to grow in nearly a perpendicular 

 direction. The process of cutting the trunk within a short distance 

 of the ground is repeated every four or five years, and as a general 

 rule, they are not stocked until the second year after this operation. 

 Sometimes the husbandman finds a tree which the insects themselves 

 have attained, but the usual practice is to stock them with the nests 

 of the insect, which is effected in spring. These nests are about the 

 size of a "fowl's head," and are removed by cutting off a portion of 

 the branch to which they are attached, leaving an inch each side of 

 the nest. The sticks, with the adhering nests, are soaked in un- 

 husked rice-water for a quarter of an hour, when they may be sepa- 

 rated. When the weather is damp or cool, they may be preserved in 



