DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 325 



and large quantities of a substance termed lac-lake^ con- 

 sisting of the colouring matter of stick-lac precipitated 

 from an alkaline lixivium by alum, were manufactured 

 at Calcutta and sent to this country, where at first the 

 consumption was so considerable, that in the three years 

 previous to 1810 Dr. Bancroft states that the sales of it 

 at the India House equalled in point of colouring matter 

 half a million of pounds weight of cochineal. More re- 

 cently, however, a new preparation of lac colour, under 

 the name o^ lac-dye, has been imported from India, which 

 has been substituted for the lac-lake, and with such ad- 

 vantage, that the East India Company are said to have 

 saved in a few months 14,000/. in the purchase of scarlet 

 cloths dyed with this colour and cochineal conjointly, 

 and without any inferiority in the colour obtained *. 



Some other insects besides the Cocci afford dyes. Reau- 

 mur tells us, that in the Levant, Persia, and China, they 

 use the galls of a particular species of Aphh for dyeing 

 silk crimson, which he thinks might lead us to try expe- 

 riments with those of our own country ''. That dyes 

 might be thus obtained seems probable from an obser- 

 vation of Linne's, in his Lapland Tour, upon the galls 

 produced by Aphis Pini on the extremities of the leaves 

 of the spruce-fir, which, he informs us, when arrived at 

 maturity burst asunder, and discharge an orange-co- 

 loured powder which stains the clothes "^; and Mr. Shep- 

 pard confirms this observation, the galls of this Aphis 

 abounding upon fir-trees in his garden. In fact, we are 

 told that Terminalla citrina, a tree common in India, 



' Bancroft on pcnnaucnt Colours, ii. 20. 40. 



'' Reaum. iii. Preface, xxxi. ' I.ark. Lapp. i. 258. 



