THE TECHNOLOGIST, 



ON VEGETABLE WAXES. 



BY M. C. COOKE, F.S.8. 



These natural products, obtained from different orders of plants and 

 widely-dissevered regions, have of late years increased in commercial 

 importance. Vegetable wax, and that prepared by bees, must be regarded 

 as a concrete fixed oil. Both kinds are indifferent to the action of acids, 

 and contain a large proportion of oxygen. Myrica wax before it is 

 bleached has a greenish hue : its specific gravity exceeds that of animal 

 wax ; it is harder, more brittle, easily powdered, and melts more readily. 

 It contains, besides, a good deal of a peculiar substance which is analogous 

 to stearine or stearic acid, and which for that reason is called myricine. 

 Beeswax contains a smaller quantity of this ingredient, but a much larger 

 proportion of cerine, another constituent of wax. Vegetable wax dissolves in 

 boiling turpentine, and combines with alkalis, forming a compound possess- 

 ing the properties of soap. 



Vegetable wax is obtained from two species of palm, from several 

 species of Myrica which are par excellence the wax-producing plants, from 

 one species of fig, from at least one species of gourd, from two species 

 of sumach, and from other plants at present unknown. 



Wax obtained from plants of the Myrica tribe exudes from the 

 surface of the fruits, chiefly towards the time of their maturity. It is 

 exhaled in a liquid state, but soon hardens when exposed to the atmo- 

 sphere, and forms a white powder which under the microscope displays 

 the shape of minute scales. In most instances vegetable wax is secreted 

 upon the fruit, in others upon the stem or leaves ; but in all instances 

 the essential properties of the secretion appear to be nearly identical. 



Carnauba Wax (Copernicia cerifera, Mart. ; Corypha cerifera, Camara). 

 — The leaves of this palm produce a kind of wax, obtained by shaking the 

 young leaves after they have been detached from the tree ; when each 

 leaf yields about 50 grains of a whitish, scaly powder, which is melted 

 in pots over a fire. This wax is sometimes employed by the Brazilians 

 to adulterate beeswax, and it has been several times imported into Great 

 Britain for the purposes of candlemaking ; but the lemon-coloured tint 



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