436 DR ANDERSON ON THE COLOURING MATTER 



operations on a larger scale than is either convenient or customaiy in a chemical 

 laboratory. 



I have experienced this difficulty to a considerable extent in the investigation 

 of the colouring matter to be treated of in the following communication, which 

 has been somewhat restricted by the limited quantity of the substance at my dis- 

 posal. I do not, therefore, present it to tlie Society as completely exhausting the 

 subject, which I still leave open for fmther researches, but principally because the 

 coloimng matter in question differs in certain remarkable points from any hitherto 

 described, and c onstitutes the type of an entirely new class, the existence of which 

 is likely to throw light on some obscure points of Technical Chemistry. 



The subject of these experiments was imported into Glasgow, some time since. 

 under the name of Sooranjee, with the intention of introducing it as a substitute 

 for madder in the art of dyeing. For this purpose it was, on its arrival, submit- 

 ted for trial to some of the most experienced and sldlful calico-printers in Glas- 

 gow, all of whom concurred in declaring it not to be a dye at all, and to be totally 

 destitute of useful applications. My friend Professor Balfour happening to hear 

 of this circumstance, was so good as to obtain for me a quantity of the root, which 

 has enabled me to submit it to a chemical investigation. At the time I received 

 the substance, no information could be got with regard to the plant from which 

 it was obtained ; but at the request of Dr Balfour, the importers took the trouble 

 of writing to then- correspondents in Bombay, for the purpose of obtaining speci- 

 mens of the plant or its seeds. The result of this application was, that we soon 

 received a small packet of seeds, the label of which bore that they were those of 

 the sooranjee or soorinjee plant, the Moriuda citrifuUa of botanists. As this plant 

 has been long and familiarly known as yielding one of the most extensively em- 

 ployed native Indian dyes, and as no authority was given with the seeds for the 

 determination of the species, it was considered desirable to substantiate it by 

 growing them, and examining the plant itself. They were accordingly sown, 

 both in the Botanic Garden, and in the garden of Professor Syme at Milbank ; 

 unfortunately, however, not a single seed germinated, and we were compelled to 

 content oiirselves with the less satisfactory process of determining the plant by 

 the characters of the seed itself. By a comparison with the plates of G.ekti\er"s* 

 work, they are found to agree very closely with his figures of the seeds of the 

 Mor'mda citrifoUa, and certainly belong to a species of the genus. Of this genus 

 six or seven species are known to produce dyes,f but of these two only are im- 

 portant, the 21. citrifdJia of Li.nn.ei'n, and the M. iJuctaria of Roxburgh, both 

 of which are extensively cultivated in various parts of India, for the sake of 



* De Fructibus et Seminibus Plantarum, vol. i., p. 144. 



f In addition to those above mentioned, colouring matters are contained in Morinda multifida, 

 angmtifolia, chaehucii, and wmbellata. 



