ON TWO KINDS OF VEGETABLE WAX. 151 
making a kind of Chica pomatum, and anoint their skin 
with it. 
The Crajuru now brought into Europe must furnish a 
rather strong and beautiful dye, the brilliancy of which ap- 
pears quite superior to that of Orleans.* 
Lond. Chem. Gaz. 
ART. XXXVII.— ON TWO KINDS OF VEGETABLE WAX, 
FROM BRAZIL. 
By M. Sigaud. 
The first kind of wax known under the name of Car- 
nauba, is afforded by a palm which grows in abundance in 
the northern provinces of Brazil, especially in the province 
of Ceara. It forms a thin layer on the surface of the leaves 
of the tree. The cut leaves are dried in the shade ; scales 
of a pale yellow very soon separate, which melt when 
heated, and give a mass of true wax, the sole fault of which 
is that it is rather brittle. 
The first samples of this wax were sent by the governor 
of Rio Grande to the Count de Galveas, who in his turn 
sent them to Lord Grenville. Mr. Brande published an 
analysis in the Phil. Trans, for 1811. Mr. Brande en- 
deavored to discover a method of bleaching this wax, but 
without success. He was more fortunate in some experi- 
ments of manufacturing it into candles ; his experiments 
* The drink called chica, which is so much used among the people of 
South America, must not be confounded with the subject of the present no- 
tice. This drink, in fact, is prepared with pods of algaroba, (Mimosa alga- 
roba,) which are nearly as sweet as the carouba of the Ceratonia siliqua, 
and with the bitter stalks of the Schinus molle. It is said that old women 
are employed to chew these Algarobse and the Schinus, and then to spit 
them into a vessel ; water is added ; the whole soon ferments, and affords a 
kind of intoxicating beer. 
