WAX TREE. 
271 
with it. It is then dried and melted, after which 
it is strained a second time to render it perfectly 
pure, and finally made into cakes for use. Four 
pounds of berries yield about a pound of wax : that 
which is first detached is generally yellow ; but in 
the latter boilings, the pellicle with which the stone 
of the berry is covered, gives it a green tinge. 
The Chinese also collect wax from certain trees, 
which is almost equal in quality to that made by 
bees. As this, however, is not the produce of the 
vegetable, but deposited by insects, it may be 
thought improper to give it a place in this part of 
our work ; nevertheless, as the wax is always con- 
fined to particular trees, that derive their name, in 
the country, from this circumstance, we shall beg 
leave to introduce them under the same head. 
Only two kinds of trees produce the wax, which 
from its whiteness is called pe-la. One of these 
trees, which the Chinese call kan-la-chu , or the dry 
wax-bearing tree, is short and bushy, and grows in 
a sandy soil ; the other, named choui-la-chu> or the 
aquatic wax-bearing tree, is much larger, and grows 
only in moist places. Grosier tells us that the 
former of these trees, being of a shrubby nature, is 
easily propagated ; and that walls may be covered 
with it to the height of ten or twelve feet ; or 
hedges may be formed of it in the fields : it seems 
indeed particularly calculated to succeed in any situ- 
ation, since it is said equally to endure heat and 
cold, and to thrive, without the least culture, in 
the barren est soil. 
