450 FLINT'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book IX. 



been pointed out to luxury, in thus making one colour cany 

 another, and thereby become, as they say, softer and more 

 mellow. And what is even more than this, human ingenuity 

 has even learned to mingle with these dyes the productions of 

 the earth, and to steep in Tyrian purple fabrics already dyed 

 crimson with the berry of the kermes, in order to produce the 

 hysginian 14 tint. The kermes of Galatia, a red berry which 

 we shall mention when we come to speak 15 of the productions 

 of the earth, is the most esteemed of all, except, perhaps, the 

 one that grows in the vicinity of Emerita, 16 in Lusitania. 

 However, to make an end, once for all, of my description of 

 these precious dyes, I shall remark, that the colour yielded by 

 this grain 17 when a year old, is of a pallid hue, and that if it is 

 more than four years old, it is quickly discharged : hence we 

 find that its energies are not developed either when it ife too 

 young or when old. 



I have now abundantly treated of an art, by means of which 

 men, just as much as women, have an idea that their appearance 

 may be set off to the greatest possible advantage. 



CHAP. 66. (42.) THE PINNA, AND THE PINNOTHEKES. 



Belonging to the shell-fish tribe there is the pinna 18 also :' 

 it is found 19 in slimy spots, always lying upright, and never 



14 From the Greek v<ry/oe, after the herb hysge, which was used in 

 dyeing. Judging from the present passage, it would almost appear to have 

 been the colour now known as puce. See B. xxi. c. 36 and c. 97 ; and 1>. 

 xxxv. c. 26. 



15 See B. xvi. c. 8, and B. xxiv. c. 4. 

 " See B. iv. c. 35. 



17 This is in reality the Coccus ilicis of Linna3iis, a small insect of the 

 genus Coccus, the female of which, when impregnated, fastens itself to a 

 tree from which they derive nourishment, and assumes the appearance of a 

 small grain : on which account they were long taken for the seeds of the 

 tree, and were hence called grains of kermes. They are used as a red and 

 scarlet dye, but are very inferior to cochineal, which has almost entirely 

 superseded the use of the kermes. The colour is of a deep red, and will 

 stand better than that of cochineal, and is less liable to stain. 



18 Or pina. The Pinna marina, Cuvier says, is a large bivalve shell-fish, 

 which is remarkable for its fine silky hair, by means of which it fastens 

 itself to the bottom of the sea. 



19 The poet Oppian, Halieut. B. ii. 1. 186, relates the same story about 

 the pinna and its protector ; which is also mentioned by Cicero, Plutarch, 

 and Aristotle. 



