540 



OLEAaiNOrS PLANTS. 



on the point of a penknife, and lighted at a Candle flame, will 

 burn without the least odor for four or five minutes, giving a 

 light equal to two or three candles. From the flower of the tree 

 (he adds), I am told, is distilled a delightful scent." [I presume 

 this must be the candle-nut tree.] 



At the Peejee and Hawaian islands, the seeds of the castor oil 

 plant and of the candle-nut tree (Aleurites triloha) are strung 

 together and used for candles. Species of torches are also made 

 from the candle wood in Demerara. 



The Candlebebrt Myetle {Myrica ceriferd) abounds in the 

 Bahama Islands. The shrub produces a small green berry, which, 

 like the hog plum, puts out from the trunk and larger limbs. 

 Much patient labor is required in gathering these berries, and from 

 them is obtained a beautiful green wax, winch burns very nearly, 

 if not fully, as well as the spermaceti, or composition candles im- 

 ported from abroad. Not long since Mr. Thos, B. Musgrove, of 

 St. Salvador (or Cat Island), obtained about 80 lbs. of this wax, 

 and made some excellent candles of it. The method of procuring 

 this wax is by boiling the berries in a copper or brass" vessel for 

 some time. Iron pots are found to darken and cloud the wax. 

 The vessel after a suf&cient time is taken from the fire, and when 

 cool the hardened wax, floating on the top of the water, is skimmed 

 ofi". 



Myrtle Wax. — According to the experiments of M. Cadet and 

 Dr. Bostock, myrtle wax differs in many respects from bees' wax. 

 Specimens of it assume shades of a yellowish green color. Its 

 smell is also different ; myrtle wax, when fresh-, emitting a fragrant 

 balsamic odor. It has in part the unctuosity of bees' wax, and 

 somewhat of the brittleness of resin. Its specific gravity is greater, 

 insomuch that it sinks in water, whereas bees' wax floats upon it ; 

 and it is not so easily bleached to form white wax. The wax tree 

 of Louisiana contains immense quantities of wax. 



Mr. Moodie (" Ten Tears in South Africa " ) says, — 



" I occasionally employed my people, at spare times, in gathering wax berries 

 that grow in great abundance upon small bushes in the sand hills, near the sea, 

 and yield a substance partaking of the nature of wax and tallow, which is mixed 

 with common tallow, and used by the colonists for making candles. The berry 

 is about the size of a pea, and covered with a bluish powder. They are 

 gathered by spreading a skin on the sand, and beating the bush with a stick. 

 When a sufficient quantity of the berries are collected, they are boiled in a great 

 quantity of water, and the wax is skimmed off as fast as it rises ; the wax is 

 then poured into flat vessels and allov/ed to cool, when it becomes hard and 

 brittle, and has a metallic sound when struck. The cakes thus formed are of 

 a deep green color, and are sold at the same price as tallow. The wild pigs de- 

 vour these berries when they come in their way, and seem very fond of them." 



A good specimen of myrtle, or candleberry wax, accompanied 

 by candles made from it in the crude unbleached state in New 

 Brunswick, was shown at the Grreat Exhibition. 



Yegetable wax was also sent from Shanghae, in China ; from 

 St. Domingo, in the northern parts of which the plant is indigenous ; 

 and a remarkable specimen from Japan. This substance, from its 



