N!r. J. E. Teschemacher on the CLIV. 012 tlie Wax of the Chumm-ops, By J. E. TESCHEXACHER, Esq. BOUT three niillions of palm leaves are annually imported iiito the United States of' America for the purpose of being riianiifiictured into hats. They coiiie tied in bundles called iii Spaiiish Esteras each esfem weighing from 50 to 60 pounds; these ere the palinate part of the leaf with a small portion of the petiole ; this last weighs one-eighth of the leaf. The palm froin which the leaves are cut in Cuba and other parts of the West Indies for this purpose is a Chamzrops a low-growing species not differiiig 1 believe from tlie C. hu-miilis of the southern sections of the United States except in being much more robust in habit. 'The C. lztmilis of' tlie United States is too soft and yielding for this niaiiufacture.I have cultivated the p1a11t from Cuba for five or six years and was unable to discover any (liff'ereiice in foliage; but I have iiever seen the friiit of either. The leaf' of' the Chamaerops spreads out nearly horizontal with folds precisely like those of R lady's fin. On opening these foI(ls when they arrive in the United States in their dried state there is a qiiantity of white flaky powder under this is the bright varnish which covers the whole surface of the leaf; both these are true vegetable wax. From one of these plm leaves I obtaiiied by passing the tliunib down the folds 90 grains of the ~hitt:wax in pow-dery fl:ikes and by boiling the leaf after cutting in pieces in alcohol 300 grains more of a grayer coloured wax.At t!ie inaiiufactoiy the leaves itre often bleaclied by the Wax of !he Chaimwops. 25 fumes of sulphurous acid gas and then split by iiiachiriery into very thin strips ;this division cracks off of course a large por- tion of the brittle varnish which together with the white pow-der falls to the ground is swept together and burnt or thrown away. The weight of this substarice destroyed annually pro- bably exceeds one hundred thousand pounds. On treating this substance with a small quantity of boiling alcohol it may like other wax be separated into cerine and myricine. The powdery flakes first obtained contain about 80 per cent. niyricine and 20 per cent. cerine but the wax obtained from boiling the leaf in alcohol contains scarcely any niyricine.This is easily accounted fbr; the flakes being the brittle and more resinous part break off'readily ;while the alcohol which acts on the leaves dissolves only the cerine leaving the myri- cine undissolved ;this might no cloubt he obtained by increa- sing the quantity of alcohol and coiitinuing the process if it were desirable. In bees' wax the proportions of these two substances vary also the cerine from 70 to 90 per cent. myricine from iO to 30 per cent.; arid it is probable that the ~iioreor less brittle quality of all wax depends on the relative quantity of these two ingredients. The wax of Ceroxzlylou atidicola a very lofty palm found by Humboldt at Quindin on the Andes has been analysed ;tnd found very nearly to resemble bees' wax ill its ultimate 1)r in c itdes.Bees' wax. Palm wax. Carbon . . . . . 80.14 80-28 Hydrogen . . . . 14~08 13'20 Oxygen. . . . . 5-78 6'52 To obtain this wax the outer portion of the trunk is rasped or scraped the raspings are heated in water the wax swims at the top the other parts fall to the bottom the wax is col-lected made into small balls and dried in the sun; it has a deep yellow colour and when the resinous part (niyricine?) is uielted it has the appearance of amber ; after the separation of the wax and resin from the produce of Ceroxylon there remains in the alcohol a bitter yellow substance supposed to be a vegetable alkaloid. This yellow substance separates also from the wax of the leaf of Chani~rops but I think it is not an ingredient in the wax but of other parts of the juices dis- solved by the alcohol. The production from the juices of plants by a purely vege- table function of wax scarcely differing from that deposited in their hires by bees is calculatt.d to throw light 011 the qties-ti011 of the 1;mnation ot' this sul)stai~cebj these iiisects aid Dr. Hofniann’s New Researches upon Aiiiliire. also merits the careful examination of those who are entering into the study of the various trnnsfiirmations of the vegetable juices at different periods of their progress towards inaturiry.