DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 326 



Choni-la-chu) on which alone it is found, and which al- 

 ways afterwards retain it. Towards the beginning of 

 winter small tumours are perceived, which increase until 

 as big as a walnut. These are the nests (abdomens of 

 the females) filled with the eggs that are to give birth to 

 the Cocci, which when hatched disperse themselves over 

 the leaves, and perforate the bark under which they re- 

 tire. The wax (called Pe-la, white wax, because so by 

 nature,) begins to appear about the middle of June. At 

 first a few filaments like fine soft wool are perceived, 

 rising from the bark round the body of the insect, and 

 these increase more and more until the gathering, which 

 takes place before the first hoar frosts in September. 

 The wax is carried to court, and reserved for the empe- 

 ror, the princes, and chief mandarins. If an ounce of 

 it be added to a pound of oil, it forms a wax little infe- 

 rior to that made by bees. The physicians employ it in 

 several diseases ; and the Chinese, when about to speak 

 in public and assurance is necessary, previously eat an 

 ounce of it to prevent swoonings a ; a use of it for which 

 happily our less diffident orators have no call. This ac- 

 count is in the main confirmed by Geomelli Careri, ex- 

 cept that he calls the wax-insect a worm which bores to 

 the pith of certain trees ; and says that it produces a 

 sufficient supply for the whole empire, the different pro- 

 vinces of which are furnished from Xantung, where it is 

 bred in the greatest perfection, with a stock of eggs b . 

 A very different origin, however, is assigned to the Pc-la 

 by Sir George Staunton, who informs us that it is pro- 

 duced by a species of Cicada (C. limbed a), which in its 

 3 Grosier's China, i, 139. b Quoted in Southey's Thaloba,n. 166. 



