58 THE PLANT WORLD. 



PLANT JUICES AND THEIR COMMERCIAL VALUES. 

 By Mrs. Caroline A. Creevey. 

 [ Continued. ] 



Of dyes, indigo and madder will serve as examples. The process 

 of coloring as it is done to-day, is very intricate, since the colors are 

 compounds, prepared from several sources. Indigo may be extracted 

 from a number of plants, the most important being species of the bean 

 family. Indigofera tinctoria is a plant 3 to 5 feet high, and it is in 

 the leaves that the indigo-yielding principle is found, and as to the 

 flower-buds are aliout opening, the plant is cut done. Its stems and 

 ])ranch8s are placed in fermenting vats, thereafter put through a 

 variety of processes by which a paste is formed, which is made into 

 cakes and dried. Bengal indigo is the most highly prized, Java and 

 Guatemala ranking next. In these plants the indigo-yielding princi- 

 ples exists in the form of a glucose body, called indicem. The cakes 

 are light and porous, of different shades of color, the inferior qualities 

 beinof greenish or grayish. 



The rubiaceous plant Ruhia t'tnctorum., supplies every tint of red, 

 purple, rose and lilac, even Turkey red l)eing one of its colors. The 

 roots of the plant are washed and ground; then the water is strained, 

 fermented and distilled. 



In making confectionery and as ingredient of cough medicine, we 

 must not omit to mention the mucilaginous, sweet root of the marsh 

 mallow, Althea officinalis. Spanish licorice is the sweet juice, boiled 

 and thickened, of Ghjcyrrhlza ghd>ra^ a member of the bean family. 

 It is imported in ship-loads to this country, and is probably used by 

 brewers and tobacconists for purposes of adulteration. 



Two Americant plants, long considered valueless, the saw-palmetto 

 of sandy districts in the south, and a species of dock, Rwmex hymeno- 

 sejxdus., a plant found wild in the borders of deserts and waste lands of 

 California, New Mexico and Texas, have been discovered to contain 

 highly concentrated, excellent tannin. The saw palmetto, Serenoa scrrn- 

 lata, grows almost horizontally, half buried in the soil, with many 

 tough, tibr(>us roots extending downward from the trunk, fastening it 

 so firmly in the ground that it is only removed with great labor. The 

 large, ex[)anding, tough leaves are joined to a petiole one to two or 

 more feet in length, which is supplied with fine saw-like teeth on either 

 side. The panicle of cream-colored flowers is very fragrant, attract- 



