102 ON THE PRESENT USE OF LICHENS AS DYE-STUFFS. 
on the ground of the superior beauty and permanence, as well as 
abundance and cheapness, of the former. In the Presidential Address 
of this Association at the Manchester meeting in 1861, Dr. Fairbairn 
remarked of aniline, * This important discovery will probably in a few 
years render this country independent of the world for dye-stuffs ; and 
it is more than probable that England, instead of drawing her dye- 
stuffs from foreign countries, may herself become the centre from 
Which all the world will be supplied." In the Museum of Economic 
Botany at Kew, which is the most important of its class in tliis coun- 
try, it is stated that Orchill was formerly used for dyeing mauve and 
allied colours, and is so still, to a small extent; but the coal-tar and 
other colours ave virtually supplanted it. 
Again, Robert Hunt describes a dyeing liquor, prepared from sulphate 
of aniline, as capable of producing the delicate and “admired colours 
of Archill, and it has this great advantage over it, that it is not de- 
stroyed by light." A few years ago I was informed by the representa- 
tive of one of the largest Glasgow calico-printing firms—a house that 
had spent some £10,000 or £12,000 on an aniline patent—that the 
great disadvantage or defect of Orchill is that it does not “ stand.” 
The hue is not permanent ; it fades and becomes dim when exposed to 
light and air; while in gaslight it assumes a brown tinge. A muslin 
dress dyed with Orchill-purple soon gets brown in gas-lit rooms. It 
is not asserted that the aniline or other colours are superior in beauty, 
but they can be rendered more permanent by mordants. My friend 
described a rose-colour produced from the coal-tar colouring matter 
as then greatly admired and run upon; but it did not differ from 
what may be produced from several of the dye-lichens. All his prac- 
tical evidence went to show that— 
l. There is a fashion in colours, as in many other matters connected 
with dress. 
2. At that time the coal-tar colours were in the ascendant; and 
3. The only superiority of the latter colours over the Lichen-dyes 
lay in their superior permanence. 
The object of my present communication is to show that all pre- 
dictions regarding the displacement of Lichen-dyes by Aniline or other 
modern colouring matters, are at least premature, I confess that so 
satisfactory were the grounds upon which these predictions or assertions 
were based,—such the experience and reputation of the many eminent 
