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 the crude unbleached state in New Brunswick, was shown at the Great Exhibition.

Vegetable wax was also sent from Shanghae, in China; from St. Domingo, in the northern parts of which the plant is indigenous; and a remarkable specimen from Japan.  This substance, from its high melting point and other physical characteristics, has of late attracted a good deal of attention; it is admirably suited as a material for the manufacture of candles.

At a meeting of the Central Board, at Cape Town, in March, 1853, the members voted about L300, to employ some 20 or 30 men, in gathering berries from the Downs, and making wax during the winter months, that is, from the beginning of May to the end of September.  The wax fetches a good price in the Cape market.

In the annual report of the Cape of Good Hope Agricultural Society, in May, 1853, a very fine sample of myrtle, or terry wax, grown on the Cape Flats, was exhibited by Mr. Feeny, Superintendent of the Road Plantation, by direction of the Commissioners of the Central Road Board, in different stages of purification, from green to white, as also some candles; and it being conceived by the meeting that this article might ultimately become one of considerable importance for purposes of export, a letter of thanks was addressed to Mr. Feeny;