84 ON THE PRESENT DOMESTIC USE OF LICHEN DYESTUFFS 
thousands to be massed together before they are visible to the naked 
eye, and, though thousands of ships have for hundreds of years sailed 
the Arctic, unknown to the men who were most interested in its ex- 
istence ; illustrating in a remarkable degree how nature is in all her 
kingdoms dependent on all—and how great are little things ! 
ON THE PRESENT DOMESTIC USE OF LICHEN DYE- 
STUFFS IN THE SCOTTISH ISLANDS AND HIGH- 
LANDS. 
[Being portion of a paper ‘On the Present Use of Lichens as Dye-Stuffs," 
read before Section B. (Chemical Science) of the British Association at 
Dundee, in September last, by Dr. LAUDER Linpsay, of Perth.] 
Many years ago, Liehenologists ventured to assert, that if there 
lingered then in the more remote corners, or less accessible districts, of 
Scotland, any vestige of the domestic or home use of Lichens as dye- 
stuffs,—a practice which at one time largely prevailed,—such a rude 
procedure or custom would speedily disappear before the march of 
civilization; the penetration of the Highlands by railways—the es- 
tablishment of regular steam communication between Edinburgh or 
Glasgow, and the western and northern islands and coasts: the 
cheapening and multiplication of coal-tar, or other dye-stuffs, and of 
the printed goods, woollen and cotton, of Glasgow and Manchester, 
Leeds and Bradford. The ‘Synopsis of the Vegetable Products of 
Scotland’ in the Museum of the Royal Botanic Garden of Kew, states 
that “all the native vegetable dyes are... falling into disuse from 
the cheapness and facility with which those of foreign origin can be 
procured.” And this statement was not made without due, though 
local, inquiry ; for my friend Mr. Ravenscroft, of the firm of Messrs. 
Lawson, of Edinburgh, by whom the said collection was arranged, 
originally for the Exhibition of 1851, collected his information and 
specimens alike in the district around Fort Augustus in 1850. 
The object of my present communication is to show that all such 
predictions and assertions are at least premature. Evidence of a con- 
trary kind has presented itself to me, somewhat unexpectedly I confess, 
during a tour in the summer of 1866, through the Hebrides, Orkney, 
and Shetland: to which I have been enabled to add confirmatory evi- 
dence collected previously or subsequently in Caithness, Inverness, and 
