THE PA GE OF NA T URE. 1 1 3 



trader in the Levant, discovered in tho sixteenth century 

 the art of preparing a most valuable dye from it, by the 

 sale of which he realized in a short time a very large 

 fortune. If, however, we are to believe Tournefort, the 

 preparation of orchil was known to the ancient Greeks; 

 the purple of Amorgos, one of the Cyclades Islands, with 

 which the celebrated tunics of the same name were dyed, 

 being obtained from this lichen. Some authors are of 

 opinion that it was the orchil, and not the little murex, 

 a species of shell-fish found on the coast of Syria and 

 Phoenicia, which supplied the famous Tyrian purple, the 

 exclusive badge of imperial rank referred to in Ezekiel : 

 " Fine linen, with broidered work from Egypt, was that 

 which thou spreadest forth to be thy sail ; blue and 

 purple from the isles of Elishah was that which covered 

 thee." The frequent representation of the little shell- 

 fish on the coins dug up among the ruins of Tyre must, 

 however, be regarded as a sufficient refutation of this 

 idea. The secret of the Rucellai was soon divulged, and 

 the manufacture transferred to Holland, where a con- 

 siderable trade in this lichen is still carried on. The 

 orchil is found in small quantities on rocks by the sea-side 

 in the extreme south of England, and in the Guernsey 

 and Portland Isles. In warm climates, however, it occurs 

 in profusion, especially on the volcanic rocks, and tho 

 sea-shores of the Canary and Cape de Verde Islands, in 

 the numerous isles of the Grecian Archipelago, and on 

 the coasts of China and Peru. In the Indian collection 

 of raw vegetable products exhibited in the Crystal Palace 

 of 1851, several specimens of orchil from India, Ceylon, 

 aud Socotra were shown; and an explanatory note ap- 

 II 



