WAX INSECTS 10& 



transit great care is taken of them, the coolie travelling 

 only l)y night or on dull days, as the sunlight matures 

 the contents of the scales too rapidly. At the resting 

 places the loads are unpacked, and the packets spread 

 thinly in cool and shady places. Most of the coolies 

 travel by way of Fulin, at which place they cross the 

 Tung River, but I was informed that some make a 

 more direct route by crossing the country of the inde- 

 pendent Lolos, who permit them to do so on payment 

 of duty. 



They reach Kia-ting-fu about the beginning of May,, 

 when the small packets are undone and from twenty to 

 thirty scales are enclosed in a leaf of the wood oil tree 

 {Aleurites cor data) in which some rough holes are 

 made to allow of the escape of the insects and also 

 to pass pieces of rice straw through, by means of which 

 it is attached to the branch of the tree upon which 

 the wax is produced. This is a species of ash [Fraxinus 

 chinensis), which is grown, in a pollard form, in great 

 quantities round the edges of the rice fields, and up' 

 to the foot of the mountains in the district around 

 Kia-ting-fu. 



In fine weather the insects soon creep out of the 

 scales and up the branches on to the twigs, on the under 

 side of which the wax soon begins to appear. This 

 gradually increases, coating the twig or branch all over,. 



