'This Siam varnish is collected in the province of Corsama, and in the kingdom of Cambodia, from the tree Anacardus, called by the inhabitants _Tong_ or _Tree-Rak_; the fruit of which is called in our shops Anacardium, or _Luk Rak_, and the liquor is called _Nam Rak_. 'To collect this liquor, they bore a hole in the trunk, and put in a tube. By this method they get as much of it as is sufficient not only to varnish all the utensils of China, Tonquin, and Japan, but it is even exported in close wooden vessels to Batavia, and other parts of India.’ The original of Kœmpfer, p. 794. speaking of the true Japan varnish, is as follows: “Prostat non sincera modo, sed et colorata, vel cinnabari nativa Sinensi, vel terra rubra (quam Batavi antea, nunc Sineses advehunt) vel atramenti popularis materiâ.” Which I apprehend may be read thus in English: 'This varnish is not only sold quite pure, but likewise coloured, and that with Chinese native cinnabar, and a kind of red earth, which the Dutch formerly, but now the Chinese, bring them; and also with the materials that they make their common (or Japan) ink of.’ Mr. Miller translates it thus (_See p._ 164. _vol._ xlix. _Phil. Transact._): 'This varnish is used without mixture to stain black: but the Chinese mix native cinnabar, or a red kind of earth, with it, to make a different colour.’ Here we may observe, that Mr. Miller uses the words staining black; which is not the sense of the author, who, by mentioning the materials of Japan ink, shews, that even in varnishing black it was necessary to use this black mixture. Further, Mr. Miller says, that the Chinese mix these colouring ingredients with this varnish: but the original plainly says, that the Chinese import them, and the Japanese mix them with their varnish for sale. And in a former part of this letter, p. 162. vol. xlix. Phil. Trans. he says, speaking of this true varnish-tree, that callicuts are painted with the juice of this shrub. But this bare assertion of his, without producing a proper authority, I am persuaded this Honourable Society will never admit as a matter of proof to invalidate the discovery of the Abbé Sauvages. In looking over one of the numbers of Mr. Miller’s Dictionary, under the title of Anacardium, I find he quotes a passage from Dr. Grew, which Sir Hans Sloane has placed among his observations on the Cashew-tree, _Hist. Jam. vol._ ii. _p._ 127. which is, that cottons are stained with lime, and the oil, or mellaginous succus, called Mel Anacardium (but for the account of this Mel Anacardium I shall refer to Parkinson’s Theat. p. 1568); and Mr. Miller seems to think it difficult to know which of the Anacardiums is here meant.