282 POPULAR ECONOMIC BOTANY. 



The Carnauba is one of the finest palms of the Brazilian 

 forests. Its fan-like leaves are placed in a tuft at the top 

 of a hard solid stem growing from thirty to forty feet in 

 height, the stalks of the leaves themselves being six or eight 

 feet in length. When the leaves have attained perfection, 

 they are found to be beautifully varnished with a thin coat- 

 ing of vegetable wax; they are then gathered, and laid in 

 a cool dry place on cloths, where they naturally wither and 

 shrink. In consequence of shrinking, the coat of wax 

 cracks and peels off in small flakes ; these are from time to 

 time shaken off and collected. When sufficient of the wax 

 is thus obtained, it is melted into small earthen pans, and 

 when cooled turned out. The lumps imported bear the shape 

 of the utensil in which they have been melted ; they .are 

 about three or four pounds' weight each, of a light sulphur- 

 yellow colour, with a lustre between that of wax and resin, 

 and rather brittle ; five or six hundredweight are annually 

 imported, chiefly from the province of Ceara in Brazil. Its 

 use is said to be for mixing with common bees'-wax, to give 

 it greater firmness in various of its applications. 



Vegetable Wax, or Myrtle Wax (of North America). — 

 Obtained by boiling and pressing the berries of the wax- 

 bearing Candle-berry Myrtle {Myrica cerifera, Nat. Ord. 



