94 INSECT MANUFACTURES. 



common fowl. This, as well as the whole body, 

 was either perfectly white, or covered with a white 

 powder, some of which was left in the track of 

 the insect on the stems and leaves of the shrub. 

 This was the early stage of the insect's life, and 

 that in which wax is formed. The wax is described 

 as being a greasy white substance when first depo- 

 sited on the leaves and branches, where it soon 

 hardens into a more compact form. The insect 

 in its perfect state is of a blackish chestnut colour, 

 and is furnished with wings. It deposits its eggs 

 in little pellets about the size of a grain of millet, 

 but these enlarge in the spring, and being attached 

 to the branches, give to the shrub exactly the 

 appearance of being loaded with fruit. About 

 Midsummer these pellets open and disclose the 

 insects, which soon begin to crawl about the 

 branches and deposit wax. 



It is in the autumnal months that the Chinese 

 scrape the wax from the branches of trees, col- 

 lecting it in a vessel, and then melting and strain- 

 ing it. They next coagulate it by pouring it into 

 a vessel of cold water, and this gives it a pasty 



