108 MOUNT OMEI 
bamboo cups, are used for irrigating. During the day 
I saw a large clump of Dendrobium nobile in bloom, 
growing about ten feet from the ground on a species of 
ash tree. Ireached Oméi-hsien in the evening, and here 
my passport was copied. The guard was changed also, 
two fresh soldiers being sent from the Yamen. Mount 
Oméi, 11,100 feet high, is twenty li from here and is a 
magnificent solitary peak. Icould not ascend it on 
this journey, but intend to do so when I return. 
May 21.—The country is still lovely; weather 
cloudy. Chinese coolies were passed carrying the 
eges of the wax insect to the eastward. 
These curious insects, which are a species of coccus, 
are bred on one kind of tree, but are transported 
about 200 miles to produce the wax, which they do 
upon a totally different species of tree to that upon 
which they are bred. 
They are produced principally in the valley of the 
Anning river, a tributary of the Ya-lung, and I 
gathered from inquiries that the eggs appear in large 
numbers in the month of March upon the branches of 
the large-leaved privet (Ligustrum lucidum), being en- 
closed in small pear-shaped excrescences or scales. 
The scales are gathered at the end of April, and 
made up in paper packets weighing about 16 oz. each. 
About sixty of these form a coolie’s load, and during 
