ECONOMIC USES OF LICHENS — LLANO 411 



considered useless and dangerous. Use of human urine was common- 

 place, since it was the only early source of ammonia, and Lindsay (12) 

 states that manufacturers recognized different qualities of it in pro- 

 ducing the coloring matter : "Hence, I have been informed that some 

 English manufacturers who continue to use this forai of ammiacal 

 solution, have learned by experience to avoid urine from beer-drinkers, 

 which is excessive in quantity but frequently deficient in urea and 

 solids, while it is abundant in water." 



Brown and yelloiv dyes. — Employment of brown and yellow dyes 

 is an old custom in the northern countries of Eui'ope. Fries remarked 

 on the use of the class Lichenes in the arts "that almost all that is 

 known has been owing to the Northern — the Anglo-Saxon, Scan- 

 dinavian and German — Nations whom necessity constrained to value 

 all of Nature's gifts.*' In certain districts of Scotland, as Aberdeen- 

 shire, almost every farm or cotter had its tank or barrel ("litpig") 

 of putrid urine ("graith") wherein the mistress of the household 

 macerated some lichens ("crotals" or "crottles") to prepare dyes for 

 homespun stockings, nightcaps, or other garments. The usual prac- 

 tice was to boil the lichen and woolen cloth together in water or in 

 the urine-treated lichen mass until the desired color, usually brown, 

 was obtained. This took several hours, or less on the addition of acetic 

 acid, producing fast dyes without the benefit of a mordant or fixing 

 agent. The color was intensified by adding salt or saltpeter. This 

 method was prevalent in Iceland as well as in Scotland for those home- 

 spuns best known to the trade as Harris tweed. 



Campbell, in the National Geographic Magazine, February 1947, 

 states that in the Hebrides "lichens from the rocks supply a dye of 

 misty brown, but the fishermen do not use this color while in their 

 boats believing that what is taken from the rocks will return to the 

 rocks." Horwood (13) reported that in the Shetlands the lichens 

 were harvested in May or June, or after rain in the autumn or winter, 

 a metal scraper being used for rock species. They were washed, dried 

 in the sun, and sometimes powdered, and were processed and shipped 

 in casks to the London market as cudbear. This term is derived from 

 a corrupt pronunciation of the name of Dr. Cuthbert Gordon, chemist 

 of Glasgow, who obtained a patent for his process of preparing the 

 dye from Ochrolechia tartarea on a large scale. One person could 

 collect 20 to 30 pounds daily, any one locality being visited every 5 

 years. After washing and drying, the collected weight was reduced 

 to half. 



Hooker {in Lindsay (12) ) records that in 1807 at Fort Augustus a 

 person could gain 14 shillings per week by collecting cudbear, estimat- 

 ing a market price at 3 shillings 4 pence per stone weight (22 pounds) . 

 Other observers have recorded it as an article of commerce about Tay- 

 mouth, in Perthshire, in North Wales, Derbyshire, Westmoreland, and 



