VOL. XLIX.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 597 



the oil called toi, and stretching a skin over it to prevent its evaporating. The 

 varnish exhales a poisonous vapour, which occasions great pains in the head, 

 and causes the lips of those who handle it to swell : on which account the arti- 

 ficers, when they use it, are obliged to tie a handkerchief over their nose and 

 mouth, to prevent these effects. 



The shrub is chiefly cultivated in the provinces of Tsi, Kocko, and Figo : and 

 the best varnish in the world, he says, is produced about the city Jassino : but 

 there are many other sorts of vaniish, which are collected in Siam, Corsama, 

 and other provinces, which are much inferior in their quality to this, and are 

 produced by different plants : but one of the best among those, he says, is pro- 

 duced from the Anacardium, or Cashew-nut-tree. This is procured by perforat- 

 ing the bodies of the trees, and placing a hollow tube into the hole, under 

 which is put a wooden vessel, to receive the liquor, as it flows through the tube; 

 and when they have obtained as much of the juice as will flow out, they stop the 

 holes made in the trees. This juice is white when it proceeds from the wounds, 

 but changes black when exposed to the air. This varnish is used, without any 

 mixture, for staining black ; but the Chinese mix with it native cinnabar, or a 

 red. kind of earth, to make a different colour. 



The plant, which the Abbe de Sauvages mentions, is also figured and described 

 by Dr. Dillenius, in the Hortus Elthamensis, p. 3C)0, by the title of Toxicoden- 

 dron (bliis alatis, f'ructu rhomboide, where he also quotes the description from 

 Dr. Kaempfer, with the account as above mentioned ; and he has added all the 

 synonyms from the different authors, who have mentioned the plant, and makes 

 no doubt of its being the same with that of Japan, which, he says, should not 

 seem strange, that a varnish-tree should be fovuid in America, near the same 

 latitude with Japan ; since the Genseng, the Bignonia, commonly called Catalpa, 

 with many other plants, are found to be natives of both these countries. And 

 he questions, if the tea-tree might not be discovered in America, if persons of 

 skill were there to search for it. And he is surprised, that the inhabitants of 

 the English colonies in America have not attempted to procure the varnish, by 

 which a considerable profit may arise to them, as the plant grows naturally in so 

 great plenty there. ■ yj,>ii Ml v.t ii-iurrr 



Mr. Catesby, in his Natural History of Carolina, vol. i. p. 40y has given a 

 very good figure and description of this plant : he calls it toxicodendron foliis 

 alatis, fructu purpureo pyriformi sparso. And he says the inhabitants of Carolina 

 and the Bahama islands call it, poison-tree, and poison-ash, as the other 2 sorts 

 of toxicodendron are called poison-oak in Virginia and New England. Mr. 

 Catesby takes notice, that from the trunk of these trees is distilled a liquid, black 

 as ink, which the inhabitants say is poison ; but does not mention its being used 

 there. There are two accounts of tlie poisonous quality of this tree, printed in 



