Miscellaneous. -130 



THE TEIN-CHING, OR CHINESE INDIGO. 



When in the north of China my attention was directed to a plant 

 largely cultivated by the inhabitants for the sake of its blue dye. In 

 the southern provinces a considerable quantity of indigo {Indigofera) 

 is cultivated and manufactured, besides a large portion vi^hich is an- 

 nually imported from Manilla and the Straits. In the north, how- 

 ever, the plant which we call indigo is never met with — owing, I 

 suppose, to the coldness of the winters — but its place is supplied by 

 this Isatis indigotica, or the '^Tein-ching," as it is called by the 

 Chinese. I met with it in the Nanking cotton district, a few miles 

 west from Shanghae, where it is considered a plant of great import- 

 ance, and covers a large tract of country. It is grown in rows a 

 few inches apart, and at a distance looks like a field of young turnip 

 or cabbage plants. In June 1844, when I was in that country, the 

 plants were from 6 inches to 1 foot in height, and being considered 

 in perfection, the natives were busily employed in cutting them and 

 removing them to the manufactory. One of these places which I 

 inspected was close on the banks of the canal, and was placed there 

 for the convenience of the farmers, who brought their leaves in boats 

 from the surrounding country, as well as to be near the water, a 

 large quantity of which was requisite in the manufacture. It con- 

 sisted of a number of round tanks, which are built for the purpose of 

 steeping the leaves. The leaves are thrown into the tanks and co- 

 vered with water, and, after remaining for a certain length of time, 

 the juice is drawn off into other tanks, where I believe it is mixed 

 with lime. The colour of the liquid at first is a kind of greenish 

 blue, but after being well stirred up and exposed to the air it be- 

 comes much darker and very like the well-known indigo of com- 

 merce. I suppose it is thickened afterwards by evaporation in some 

 way, but that part of the process did not come under my observar 

 tion. I am very much inclined to believe that this is the dye used 

 to colour the green teas which are manufactured in the north of 

 China for the English and American markets ; this, however, is only 

 conjecture. The plant has a half-shrubby stem covered with a fine 

 bloom. Its root-leaves are oval-lanceolate, on long stalks, sharp- 

 pointed, slightly toothed, and somewhat fleshy ; those on the upper 

 part of the stem, near the flowers, are linear. The stem is decum- 

 bent, a foot and a half long, and divided at its extremity into several 

 drooping racemes about 6 inches long ; on its sides it bears here 

 and there small clusters of leaves like those of the root. Flowers 

 very small, yellow. Silicles black, quite smooth, 6 lines long by 

 2 wide in the broadest part, oblong, obtuse at each end, a little 

 contracted below the. middle, with a thin edge and a single median 

 line. — Fortune, in Journal of the Horticultural Society. 



M. SCHONHERR. 



M. Schonherr the celebrated Swedish entomologist has had a 

 distinguished mark of royal favour conferred ujDon him in November 

 last by being made Knight Commander of the Royal Order of Wasa, 

 having previously in 1829 by the late King of Sweden been made 

 Knight of the Royal Order of the Polar Star. 



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