The Description.

The tree that bringeth forth that excremental substance called Lacca, bothin the shops of Europe and elsewhere, is called of the Arabians, Persians and Turks, Loc Sumatri, as who should say, Lacca of Sumutra: some which have so termed it, have thought that the first plenty thereof came from Sumutra, but herein they have erred, for the abundant store thereof came from Pegu, where the inhabitants thereof do call it Lac, & others of the same province, Trec: the history of which tree, according to that famous herbarist Clusius is as followeth. "There is in the country of Pegu and Malabar, a great tree, whose leaves are like them of the Plum tree, having many small twiggy branches; when the trunk or body of the tree waxeth old, it rotteth in sundry places, wherein do breed certain great ants or pismires, which continually work and labour in the time of harvest and summer, against the penury of winter: such is the diligence of those ants, or such is the nature of the tree wherein they harbour, or both, that they provide for their winter food, a lump or mass of substance, which is of a crimson colour, so beautiful and so fair, as in the whole world the like is not seen, which serveth not only to physical uses but is a perfect and costly colour for painters, called by us, Indian Lac. The pismires (as I said) work out this colour, by sucking the substance or matter of Lacca from the tree, as bees do make honey and wax, by sucking the matter thereof from all herbs, trees, and flowers, and the inhabitants or that country, do as diligently seek for this Lacca, as we in England and other countries seek in the woods for honey; which Lacca after they have found, they take from the tree, and dry it into a lump; among which sometimes there come over some sticks and pieces of the tree with the wings of the ants, which have fallen among it, as we daily see."

The Indian Lac or Lake which is the rich colour used by painters, is none of that which is used in shops, nor here figured or described by Clusius, wherefore our author was much mistaken in that he here confounds together things so different; for this is of a resinous substance, and a faint red colour, and wholly unfit for painters, but used alone and in composition to make the best hard sealing wax. The other seems to be an artificial thing, and is of an exquisite crimson colour, but of what it is, or how made, I have not as yet found anything that carries any probability of truth.

The Place

The tree which beareth Lacca groweth in Ceylon and Malabar, and in other parts of the East Indies.

The Time.

Of the time we have no certain knowledge.

The Names.

Indian Lac is called in shops Lacca: in Italian, Lachetta: Avicenna calleth it Luch: Paulus and Dioscorides, as some have thought, Cancamum: the other names are expressed in the description.

The Temperature and Virtues.

A. Lac or Lacca is hot in the second degree, it comforteth the heart and liver, openeth obstructions, expelleth urine and prevaileth against the dropsy.

B. There is an artificial Lac made of the scrapings of Brazil and saffron, which is used of painters, and not to be used in physic as the other natural Lacca.