Miscellaneous. 7 1 



forms as mere modifications of some few, or even of one single 

 species. Subjective as the idea connected with the term " species " 

 may be, it must be adhered to objectively wherever differences (even 

 the most minute ones) are constantly observed in certain groups of 

 forms, whatever may be their size and degree of organization. The 

 Dactylopora from the Wetterstein limestones is very remarkable. 

 Had not the Neocomian age of this deposit been ascertained by 

 stratigraphical facts, the occurrence of this species in it would have 

 raised the question whether it should not rather be regarded as be- 

 longing to the deeper Triassic horizons. 



Pala Wax. 



Near this village I noticed for the first time the '* pa-la," or 

 " white-wax insect," which produces the famous so-called vegetable 

 wax of Sz-chuan. The branches of the smaller trees and shrubs 

 along the road for a great distance appeared to be covered with 

 snow, from the quantities of these insects, resembling small moths, 

 of a delicate white colour, with a fluffy tail curhng over the 

 back. 



The cultivation of wax is a source of great wealth to the province 

 of Sz-chuan, and ranks in importance second only to that of silk. 

 Its production is not attended with much labour or risk to the cul- 

 tivator. The eggs of the insect which produces the wax are annu- 

 ally imported from the districts of Ho-chin or Ho-king, and Why- 

 li-tzow, in Yunnan (where the culture of eggs forms a special occu- 

 pation) by merchants who deal in nothing else but " Pa-la-tan " 

 (white-wax eggs). The egg-clusters, which were described to me 

 as about the size of a pea, are transported carefully packed in 

 baskets of the leaves of the " Pa-la-shu " (white-wax tree), which 

 resembles a privet shrub, and arrive in Sz-chuan in March, where 

 they are purchased at about twenty taels per basket. The trees by 

 the middle of March have thrown out a number of long tender 

 shoots and leaves ; and then the clusters of eggs, enclosed in balls of 

 the young leaves, are suspended to the shoots by strings. About 

 the end of the month the larvae make their appearance, feed on the 

 branches and leaves, and soon attain the size of a small caterpiller 

 or, rather, a wingless house-fly, apparently covered with white 

 down, and with a delicate plume-like appendage curving from the 

 tail over the back. So numerous are they, that, as seen by me in 

 Yunnan, the branches of the trees are whitened by them, and ap- 

 pear as if covered with feathery snow. The grub proceeds in July 

 to take the chrj-salis form, burying itself in a white wax secretion, 

 just as a silkworm wraps itself in its cocoon of silk. All the 

 branches of the trees are thus completely coated with wax an inch 

 thick, and in the beginning of August are lopped off close to the 

 trunk, and cut into small lengths, which are tied up in bundles and 

 taken to the boiling-houses, where they are transferred, without 

 further preparation, to large cauldrons of water, and boiled until 

 every particle of the waxy substance rises to the surface ; the wax is 



