VOL. L.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 181 



shrubs were only varieties of each other produced by culture; whereas it must 

 appear to every one, who reads my paper, that my intention in mentioning the 

 spurious varnish-tree was to show it was different from Kcempfer's true varnish- 

 tree, though Kcempfer supposes otherwise. 



In my paper I took notice, that one of the best kinds of varnish was col- 

 lected from the anacardium in Japan; and recommended it to the inhabitants of 

 the British islands in America, to make trial of the occidental anacardium, or 

 cashew-nut tree, which abounds in those islands. This has occasioned Mr. Ellis 

 to take great pains to show, that the eastern and western anacardium were dif- 

 ferent trees : a fact, which was well known to every botanist before ; and of which 

 I could not be ignorant, having been possessed of both sorts near 30 years. But 

 as I was assured, from many repeated experiments, that the milky juice, with 

 which every part of the cashew-tree abounds, would stain linen with as permanent 

 a black as that of the oriental anacardium; so I just hinted, that it was worth 

 the trial. Nor was my hint grounded on those experiments only, but on the 

 informations I had received from persons of the best credit, who had resided 

 long in the American islands, that people are very careful to keep their linen at 

 a distance from those trees, well knowing that if a drop of the juice fell on it, 

 they could never wash out the stain. 



But Mr. Ellis, in order to prove that this tree has no such quality of staining, 

 says, he has made some experiments on the caustic oil; with which the shell or 

 cover of the cashew-nut abounds ; and that he found it was not endued with any 

 staining quality. But surely those experiments cannot be mentioned to prove 

 that the milky juice of the tree has not this property: and Sir Hans Sloane, in 

 his History of Jamaica, says, that the inhabitants of Jamaica stain their cottons 

 with the bark of the cashew-tree. 



Lf^l. An Answer to the preceding Remarks. By Mr. J. Ellis, F.R.S. p. 441. 



My letter to Mr. Webb, which is printed in the 49th volume of the Philoso- 

 phical Transactions,* was intended to show that Mr. Miller, in his reply to the 

 Abbe Mazeas's letter, had brought no proofs to lessen the discovery, which he 

 tells us the Abbe Sauvages-f- had made, in attempting to improve the art of 

 painting or staining linens and cottons of a fine durable black colour, by making 

 use of the juice of the Carolina pennated toxicodendron, instead of the common 

 method of staining black with galls and a preparation of iron; which, he says, 

 always turns to a rusty colour when washed. 



Mr. Miller, instead of producing the proper proofs, to show that this method 



* Page 46 of this vol. 



t It should be obseived, that the species of rhus used in Sauvages' experiments was the rhus 

 lemix, Linn, The species used in those of the Abbe Mazeas was the rhus toxicodendron. Linn. 



