[f. CANDLE sb. + BERRY sb.1] A name applied to the fruit of two plants and to the plants themselves.
a. properly Candleberry-myrtle: (a.) A shrub (Myrica cerifera) common in North America, whose berries yield myrtle-wax or bayberry tallow, a greenish-white wax, of which tolerable candles are made; called also bayberry and wax-myrtle, and in U.S. commonly candleberry tree. (b.) The name is sometimes extended to the other species of galeworts, esp. to the Sweet Gale (Myrica Gale).
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., Candle berry tree … an aromatic evergreen … also called the Virginia myrtle.
1761. Watson, in Phil. Trans., LII. 93. The candleberry myrtle of North America.
1858. Carpenter, Veg. Phys., § 347. Wax … exists in such abundance in the fruit of a Virginian myrtle, that this has received the name of Candleberry.
b. properly Candleberry tree: A species of spurgewort, Aleurites triloba, a tree of the Moluccas and the S. Pacific Isles, which produces the candle-nut of commerce, the kernels of which are used by the natives as candles.
1866. Treas. Bot., 36/1. The Candleberry tree … attaining the height of thirty to forty feet … is commonly cultivated in tropical countries for the sake of its nuts.
