WAX TREES. Species of Myrica yield myrtle wax, especially AI. cerifent of Louisiana, the berries of which are encrusted with wax. By boiling these in water, a quantity of hard, brittle wax of a pale-green colour is obtained, of the , specific gravity of 1.015, the fusing point bein,g 110°. A somewhat similar wax is obtained from cordifolia, a shrub of the Cape of Good Hope. The stems and leaves of palm trees also secrete palm wax, -which is the hard, brittle, greenish yellow wax obtained from Rio de Janeiro. It is soluble in boiling alcohol and ether ; it fuses at about 163°.
In N. America, M. Pennsylvanica also furnishes a vegetable wax. A ver,etable wax is obtained by scraping tho trunk Oti the WAX palm of the Andes (Ceroxylon Andicola, IL B.). Ono tree is said to afford about 25 lbs. It is used with tallow in inaldng candles.
A wax is found upon a hard and ligneous variety of the sugar-cane, and is known as sugar-cane wax and cerosine. This is soluble in boiling alcohol, but sparingly so iu boiling ether. By boiling the bark of the cork tree, Quercus sulker, in alcohol, and distilling off the alcohol, a quantity of yellow crystals are obtained, which form cork tree wax, which may be purified by repeated solution and crystallization. Nitric acid converts this substance into a peculiar acid, called cerinie acid.
The vegetable white wax of China, called Peh IA, resembles spermaceti. About £400,000 worth is gathered annually. Baron Rielithofen estimates tho value of the annual crop, on the average, at about £650,000. In 1879, upwards of 3:81,000 worth was exported from the one port of Hankow alone. Towards the beginning of winter, small tumours appear on the Ligustrum lucidum trees, which it inhabits, and these increase to tho of a. walnut. They are supposed to be the nuts of the female iusect ; they aro filled with eggs, which hatch in the spring, aud the young insects disperse themselves on tho leaves and pierce the bark. The wax they produce begins to appear about June, and is gathered at the beginning of September. It is found from the frontiers of Tibet to the Pacific Ocean, and reared with more or less success, but is chiefly cultivated in Shan-tung province.
In the Kin - chang district, the Ligustrum lucid= thrives in abundance. It WM accident ally discovered that, by transporting the insecta from their native districts to Keating-fu, in tho north of the province, their capability of discharging wax was largely augmented, which was availed of by the Sze-chuen traders. The period between morning and evening is chosen for conveyance, because many hours of sunlight would precipitate the hatching. This should take place only after the females have been attached Ito the trees. Arrived at their destination, six or more of tho mothers are tied, wrapped in a palm leaf, to a lig,ustrum. A few days later the young flies are swarming on the twigs, where they fulfil their mission by the mouth of August. Then they perish in the caldrons, where the results of their brief existence are collected. It is said that this peculiar industry requires the exercise of great care, forethought, and experience.
In China, a vegetable wax is obtained from the Stillingia sebifera. Dr. Rawes says the seeds are picked at the commencement of the cold weather, in November and December, -when all the leaves have fallen front the trees. The seeds are put
into a wooden cylinder, open at the top, but with a perforated batten). This is placed over au iron vessel containing hot water, and when the seeds have steamed 10 or 15 minutes, they are thrown int° a large fit0Ile mortar, and Mt gently beaten by two men with stone mallets, for the purpose of detaching the tallow from the other parts of the seed. They are then thrown upon a sICVC, heated over the fire, and sifted; by which process the tallow is separated, or nearly so, although they generally undergo the process of steauting, etc., a second time, that nothing may bo lost. The other part of the seed is ground and pressed for oil. The tallow now resembles coarse linseed meal, rind derives its brown colour from the thin cover ing over the seed (between it and tho tallow), which is separated by the pounding and sifting. In this state it•is put between circles of twisted straw, five or six of which are laid upon each other, and thus forming a hollow cylinder for its reception. When this straw cylinder has been filled, it is placed in a press of longitudinal beams of considerable thickness, placed about or 2 feet asunder, with a thick plank at the bottom, forming a kind of trough, and the whole is bound together with iron. The tallow is pressed out by means of wedges driven in very lightly with stone mallets, and passes through a hole in the bottom of the press into a tub, which is sunk there to receive it. It is now freed from all impurities, aud is a semi-fluid of a beautiful white colour, but soon gets solid, and in cold weather is very brittle. The inside of the tubs which collect the tallow are sprinkled or dusted over with a fine red earth, well dried, which prevents the tallow from adhering to their sides. It is thus easily removed in a solid state from the tubs, and in this condition the cakes are exposed for sale in the market. As the candles made from this vegetable tallow have a tendency to get soft and to melt in hot weather, they are commonly dipped in wax of various colours, as red, green, and yellow. Those which are intended for religious purposes are geuerally very large, and finely ornamented with golden characters. The cake or refuse which remains after the tallow has been pressed out of it, is used for fuel or to manure the laud, and so is the refuse from the other part of the seeds frotn ivhich oil is extracted. Stillingia sebifera grows luxuriantly. in the Debra Doon and Lower Him alaya, and in the Kohistan of the Panjab. There is an interestimg paper on it by Dr. Macgowan in vol. vii. p. 164 of the Journal of Horticultural Society of India. It flowers in June and during the rains. In addition to the tallow obtained from its seeds and used in making candles, a black dye is obtained from its leaves.
Dr. James Anderson, who lived early in the 19th- century, is said to have written about al white wax occurring near Madras, but nothing of the kind is now known.
In Sumatra, a winged ant is said to produce a grey wax, which was exhibited at the French Exposition of 1855.—Dr. J. L. Phipson; Voigt; Roxb. Ind. iii. p. 693 ; Dr. Hawes ; Eng. Cyc.; 'Williams' Middle Kingd. pp. 107-282 ; Fortune's Wanderings, p. 67 ; Smith; Hanbury, p. 64. See Dryandra cordifolia ; Oils.