A name given to various plants either yielding a vegetable wax or having a waxy appearance; esp. a. the candleberry myrtle, Myrica cerifera; b. any species of Hoya, esp. H. carnosa; c. the corpse-plant, Monotropa uniflora.
1801. J. Barrow, Trav. S. Afr., I. 19. In most of the sandy flats are found in great abundance two varieties of the Myrica cerifera, or wax plant.
1865. Mrs. H. Wood, Mildred Arkell, xxxv. Mamma made me bring this down at once for your conservatory…. It is a wax plant, and a very beautiful one.
1875. Melliss, St. Helena, 311. H[oya] carnosa,… Wax plant; grows well…. Hab. China.
1877. Sir C. Warren, On Veldt in Seventies (1902), 379. On the window there hung a ‘waxplant,’ which has beautiful waxen-looking flowers, but a real live plant.
1879. Webster, Suppl., Wax-plant, a white fleshy plant (Monotropa uniflora).
