hrub produces a small green berry, which, like the hog
plum, puts out from the trunk and larger limbs. Much patient labor is
required in gathering these berries, and from them is obtained a
beautiful green wax, which burns very nearly, if not fully, as well as
the spermaceti, or composition candles imported from abroad. Not long
since Mr. Thos. B. Musgrove, of St. Salvador (or Cat Island), obtained
about 80 lbs. of this wax, and made some excellent candles of it. The
method of procuring this wax is by boiling the berries in a copper or
brass vessel for some time. Iron pots are found to darken and cloud
the wax. The vessel after a sufficient time is taken from the fire,
and when cool the hardened wax, floating on the top of the water, is
skimmed off.

MYRTLE WAX.--According to the experiments of M. Cadet and Dr. Bostock,
myrtle wax differs in many respects from bees' wax, Specimens of it
assume shades of a yellowish green color. Its smell is also different;
myrtle wax, when fresh, emitting a fragrant balsamic odor. It has in
part the unctuosity of bees' wax, and somewhat of the brittleness of
resin. Its specific gravity is greater, insomuch that it sinks in
water, whereas bees' wax floats upon it; and it is not so easily
bleached to form white wax. The wax tree of Louisiana contains immense
quantities of wax.

Mr. Moodie ("Ten Tears in South Africa") says,--

"I occasionally employed my people, at spare times, in gathering wax
berries that grow in great abundance upon small bushes in the sand
hills, near the sea, and yield a substance partaking of the nature
of wax and tallow, which is mixed with common tallow, and used by
the colonists for making candles. The berry is about the size of a
pea, and covered with a bluish powder. They are gathered by
spreading a skin on the sand, and beating the bush with a stick.
When a sufficient quantity of the berries are collected, they are
boiled in a great quantity of water, and the wax is skimmed off as
fast as it rises; the wax is then poured into flat vessels and
allowed to cool, when it becomes hard and brittle, and has a
metallic sound when struck. The cakes thus formed are of a deep
green color, and are sold at the same price as tallow. The wild pigs
devour these berries when they come in their way, and seem very fond
of them."

A good specimen of myrtle, or candleberry wax, accompanied by candles
made from it in