Japan  Vegetable  IV ax. 
f  Am  Jour.  Pharm. 
\      Sept.,  1877. 
grown  amongst  vegetables,  more  or  less  extensively,  almost  everywhere 
in  Japan,  especially  in  the  western  provinces,  from  the  south  north- 
wards to  the  thirty-fifth  degree.  The  lacquerine  (R.  verniciferd)  also 
yields  wax,  and  differs  in  appearance  but  little  from  the  wax  tree  ;  its 
geographical  limit  extends  further  northward,  being  at  the  thirty-eighth 
degree.  Finally,  the  Rhus  sylvestris,  or  wTild  wax,  should  be  mentioned. 
The  cultivated  wax -tree  was  originally  imported  from  the  Loo  Choo 
Islands,  but  the  growers  of  the  tree  now  distinguish  seven  different 
varities.  The  tree  grows  in  great  abundance  on  the  mountainous 
declivities  of  the  province  of  Kinas,  and  in  Higo,  Hizen,  Simabara, 
Chikugo  and  Chekugen.  The  fields  are  hedged  in  with  it.  The 
berries,  which  ripen  in  October  and  November,  are  of  the  size  of  a 
small  pea  and  united  in  bunches,  contain  the  wax  between  the  kernel 
and  the  outer  skin.  When  gathered  they  are  exposed  to  the  sun  for  a 
few  days  and  then  stored  in  straw.  When  they  have  attained  their 
proper  maturity,  they  are  freed  from  stems  by  threshing  with  flails  of 
bamboo.  They  are  crushed,  winnowed,  steamed,  placed  in  hemp  cloth 
bags,  steamed  again,  and  afterwards  pressed  in  a  wooden  wedge  press* 
all  by  hand.  In  order  to  facilitate  the  flow  of  the  wax,  a  small  per- 
centage of  "  Ye  no  abura  "  (oil  from  Perilla  ocimoides,  Lin.)  is  added. 
The  raw  product  forms  upon  cooling  a  coarse,  greenish,  tallowy  mass, 
which  is  placed  in  an  earthen  vessel  with  water  and  ashes.  The  yield 
is  about  fifteen  per  cent,  of  the  berries  used.1  The  wax  is  reduced  to 
small  scraps  by  means  of  a  kind  of  planing  tool,  then  washed  and 
bleached  by  the  sun  and  air,  whereupon  it  assumes  a  pure  white  color. 
In  ordinary  candle-making  the  unbleached  wax  is  used,  and  the  manu- 
facturing is  done  by  repeated  dipping  and  rolling  on  the  flat  of  the  hand,  in 
order  to  smooth  and  harden  the  successive  coatings.  The  wicks  are  made 
by  rolling  a  narrow  strip  of  Japanese  paper  in  a  spiral  line  around  the 
upper  part  of  a  pointed  stick,  and  twisting  it  at  the  upper  end  so  as  to 
prevent  its  getting  loose.  Two  or  three  strings  of  the  pith  of  Juncus 
sffusus  are  then  rolled  around  this  paper  in  close  spiral  lines,  and 
fastened  with  a  few  fibres  of  silk  waste,  so  that  the  wicks  can  be  taken 
off  from  the  sticks  and  sold  in  bundles  to  the  candle-maker.  The 
latter  places  the  wicks  again  on  sticks,  takes  half  a  dozen  of  them  in 
his  right  hand,  dips  the  wicks  into  the  melted  wax,  and  rolls  them  upon 
^rch  Phar.,  April,  1876,  p.  374. 
