266 SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



The candles made from these berries do not so easily 

 bend or melt, in summer, as the tallow candles do ; they 

 burn better and slower, cause no smoke, and yield rather 

 a pleasant smell when extinguished. 



A soap also is made from this wax, which has a plea- 

 sant scent, and is reckoned excellent for shaving : it is 

 sometimes used as an ointment by surgeons. In Carolina, 

 sealing-wax is made from these berries, and the root is 

 considered as specific in the tooth- ache. 



There are several other species from warm countries. 

 Thunberg mentions one, a native of the Cape of Good 

 Hope, which also is used for making candles. He gives a 

 hasty sketch of the way in which they are made. It is 

 there called the Wax shrub. 



" The branches of the Wax shrub," says he " (My- 

 rica cordifolia), the berries of which are covered with a 

 fat substance resembling bees- wax, were put whole into 

 a pot of boiling water, in order to melt and skim off the 

 wax. It resembles grey impure wax, is harder than tal- 

 low, and somewhat softer than wax. The farmers use it 

 for candles, and the Hottentots eat it like a piece of 

 bread, cither with or without meat *." 



A little farther on he expresses himself nearly to the 

 same effect. " The berries,''' says he, " are quite round, 

 full of knobs, soft, and of the size of a pea. The berries 

 themselves are quite black, but covered with a farina of 

 a whitish-grey colour. They are gathered in their ripe 

 state in the month of March, and boiled in water till all 

 the white powder is melted off, and floats on the surface 

 of the water like fat ; this, when skimmed off, and 



* Thunberg's Travels, vol. i. p. 167. 



