14 VEGETABLE WAX FROM BRAZIL. 



Consequently this alloy consists of 



Copper t4 



Zinc ..*... 16 



100. 



IV. 



An Account of a Vegetable Wax from Braid. By William 

 Thomas Brande, Esq., F. R. S.* 



Vegetable wax ^^^"^^ ^* -^ ^'^^ vegetable wax, described m this paper, 

 from Brazil. v.'as given to the president by Lord Gi'enville, with a wish, 

 on the part of his Lordship, that its properties should be 

 investigated, in the hope that it might prove a useful sub- 

 stitute for bees wax, and constitute, in due time, a new 

 article of commerce between the Brazils and this country. 

 Tree whence ^^ "*^^^ transmitted to lord Grenville from Rio de Janeiro, 

 it is obtained, by the comte de Galveas, as a new article lately brought 

 to that city, from the northernmost parts of the Brazilian 

 dominions, the capitenea* of Rio Grande and Seara, be- 

 tween the lattltudes of three and seven degrees north : it is 

 said to be the production of a tree of slow growth, called 

 by the natives carnauba, which also produces a gum used as 

 food for men, and another substance employed for fattening 

 poultry. 



When the comte wrote to Lord Grenville in Ju'y last, 

 orders had been sent to the governors of the districts where 

 it gr%wH, requiring them to report more particularly on the 

 nature and qualities of this interesting tree; we may there- 

 fore-liopc, that informatio^i will soon be obtained, whether 

 the article can be procured in abundance, and at a reason- 

 able price, in which case it will become a valuable addition 

 to the comforts of mankind, by reducing the price and im- 

 proving the quality of candles, flambeaux, &c. 

 Not the ce- T\^& article, in the state in which it was sent, resembles 



roAjloaaudi- much that described by Humboldt, as the produce of 



* Phil Trans, for 1811, p. 264. 



the 



