VINEGAR. 175 
a few drops of nitric, muriatic, or acetic acids, as the case 
might be, I obtained different shades of red. I inserted 
inthe liquid strips of cotton and silk fabrics, and set 
them with alum. In one case, I took a piece of white 
ribbon, and by boiling it in the tinted solution for a few 
moments, obtained a very deep color. In another case, 
in a weaker solution, a ribbon was colored pink. Being 
entirely unacquainted with the principles of dyeing, of 
course my experiments were but imperfect, and were 
useful only as proving the fact, that in the hulls was 
actually contained a tint, which might be very easily 
separated. They led me to believe that, under proper 
circumstances, this dye could be extracted and made into 
pigments with profit. 
In Dr. Sicard’s “ Monograph of the Chinese Sugar 
Cane,” he has introduced a specimen of twenty-one colors 
obtained by him from the seed, and for which he has 
received letters patent. They range through all tints, 
from a light buff to a very deep purple, but do not, of 
course, present the brilliancy which they do when repro- 
duced on different fabrics. ‘In fact,” as he says himself 
in his Postscript, ‘it would be difficult, by these speci- 
mens, to give the slightest idea of the beauty of the tints 
which may be obtained on silk, woollen, or cotton 
stuff. The first substance has especially a very great 
affinity for the coloring matters obtained from the plant 
which has occupied our attention; but if silk has more 
affinity for all the colors in general, there are others 
which show remarkable beauty on woollen and cotton 
stuffs. The coloring principles which we have obtained 
are to the number of nine, entirely independent from 
