A name given to various trees, of different localities, yielding vegetable or insect wax; esp. a. the candleberry myrtle, Myrica cerifera, of North America; b. the privet, Ligustrum lucidum, of China; c. the genus Vismia of South America; d. the varnish-tree of South America, Elæagia utilis; e. the Japanese shrub Rhus succedanea.
1791. W. Bartram, Trav., 405. A species of Myrica (Myrica inodora) … which the French inhabitants call the Wax tree.
179[?]. W. Curtis, Bot. Mag., 2565. Ligustrum lucidum. Chinese Privet, or Wax-tree.
1803. Nicholson’s Jrnl. Nat. Philos. (80), IV. 188. The myrica cerifera, or wax tree.
1843. Penny Cycl., XXVII. 152/1. Wax-tree, the common name of the plants belonging to the genus Vismia.
1866. Treas. Bot., 442/2. The natives [S. America] speak of the tree producing this resin, Elæagia utilis, as the Wax tree or Varnish tree. Ibid., 1229/2. Wax-tree,… Japan, Rhus succeedaneum.
1890. Hosie, West China, 197. The tree is known to the Chinese as the Pai-la shu, or ‘white wax tree.’
