148 



length.* These insects collect in great numbers in 

 the beginning of the spring on the branches of the 

 chilca^ where they form their cells of a kind of soft 

 white wax. In these they become changed into a 

 small yellowish moth, with black stripes upon the 

 wings, which I have named phalena ceraria. The 

 wax is at first very white, by degrees becomes yel- 

 low, and finally brown ; this change, and the bitter 

 taste which it then acquires, is supposed to be owing 

 to the fogs, which are very frequent in the provinces 

 where it is found. It is collected in autumn by 

 the inhabitants, who boil it in water, and afterwards 

 make it up into little cakes, in which form it is 

 brought to market. In order to increase its weight, 

 many are accustomed to mix it with the rosin ob- 

 tained from another resinous shrub called pajaro boboy 

 and in this state great quantities of it are sold to ship- 

 masters, who use it for paying their vessels, the only 

 purpose to which it has hitherto been applied. It 

 is to be regretted that the situation of the Abbé 

 would not permit him to pursue his experiments, in 

 order to determine whether this rosin might not serve 

 for candles equally as well as beeswax, which it great- 

 ly resembles. 



Upon the branches of the wild rosemary is also 

 found a whitish viscous substance, in globules of the 

 size of a hazel-nut, containing a very limpid oil, 



* I am convinced that this resinous substance is a production of 

 the tree itself, and that the caterpillar merely facilitates its exuda- 

 tion, by biting the buds in the spring ; the same circumstance oc- 

 curs in many of the resinous trees of Europe..../'>. Trans, 



