r 255 ] 
folks of the Typha *. The paper made of hemp or 
ftraw ferves only for wrapping up goods, or toma e 
pafleboard j and that made of the baik of the cotton- 
plant ferves for fans, being lefs apt to crack than any 
other white paper. 
The white wax, produced by certain infe&s, is a 
very curious and profitable thing. I have not yet 
been able to fee any of them. What has been told 
me by one of our miffionaries, who has bred them 
himfelf, is not fufficient to give a proper idea of 
them. As to the manner of their depofiting this wax, 
it appears to me, that there is fome analogy between 
it, and the manner of the gum lac’s being depofited 
by certain ants -f*. 
In the emperor’s palace they very rarely ufe any 
other candles, than fuch as are made of this wax, 
becaufe it never emits any fmoke. The learned there- 
fore ufe them only, when they compofe an exercife 
upon their examination for degrees: for then they 
are confined in very fmall rooms, where the fmoke 
of tallow-candles would incommode them greatly. I 
believe the chief confumption of this wax is owing 
to 
* Typha paluftris major of Cafpar Bauhln. Cat’s- tail. 
§ In order to explain this pafTage, I take the liberty of making 
the following remark. The Lacca-tree is the Jujuba lndica of the 
great Ray; which produces this gum. The letter- writer is mifled 
by what Garcias ab Horto fays about it, that certain largc-wing'd 
ants make this gum out of the juice fuck’d from this tree, and de- 
pofit it upon the furculi , &c. of the fame : but the celebrated Ray 
and J. Bauhin fay, it is exudated, and by the heat of the fun con- 
creted into the form, in which it is found upon the parts of this 
tree. There are other trees, which produce this gum, as well 
as this, mention’d by Hermannus, 
