INDIGOFERA 

 Till' Dll 01 M<>|>KI:N OOMMBB Other IndJgoe* 



i iioiiiHon, i. .in.,,,/, .,,,,, VVIM repotted only from 



..ir in i- 1 I In- KoiiUan. 1 ln-< 'linn i mi nli -I pl.ml IM-III;: al . i /i n< r>,i in : >per." 



ihr t'urni nl I. iiiit-ltn-lii th. it u.i intr',i|ii,-> i| H..II> tin- K.iM inf'i 



.Ulil is tin- . llnrtai-lii ,,( Lillian. If. Ilii-l. -|..r. -. l! ! dr.-lii.-d 



,r\ to ni\i' this plant u scparatr name ami to r.-m.iM- it from I- 

 i id.- riiliiv.ii. -I / n>,,ii>, MI, tinn.. then it will huvo t<> be 



< I. .IIIIKI/I ,, ,1.1 (.-.-./f, lii .i.l<liii..ii In Imlia it ill I Trupkwl Africa. 



ami l-'oi-mosa. ll may ! ili-l inuuislii-d limn tin- southern 



.id-Is, uliii-h MFC larger ami o\ ale olili.njj or ulilun^, instead of i>l" 



i.r siiliorliii-uLir. '1 In- (mils arc also (ill I. *nni / IKI ) shorter, thii-ker, anil 



hlimter at lli<- a|u-\, anil an- iisuallv more numerous and Htrai({litor tluin 



in tin- Madr.t- fiirin (Dlitliir, !.<'. L'.Vi). Leak.- lias devoted iniiili ini.-lnl 



in tin' i-uttivatrd races of this plant in relation I" ti-ni|M-r.i( nn- 

 rainfall. His cunrlusinns n'^iinlinn tin- si-i-d supply will ridily repay cttrcful 

 perusal. 



(.-i) i'iir. brachycarpa, DC. This form lias IWM>M nMit. from < Inalfmala, < Vntral America. 

 Aini-rica. I'cni, etc. It is apparently not. im-t \\ith in India. 



Other Indigo-yielding Plants. The Indigo of modern coiiiini'n is History. 

 thus obtained from one or other of the species of /w/if/o/V'm discUKsed 

 But species of Indigofera are distributed throughout the tropirnl 

 of the globe (both in the Old und Nc\v Worlds) witli Africa JVH their 

 lic;nl<|uartcrs. And in addition to the Indigoferas several widely different 

 phintH yield the self-same substance chemically. Hence, for many 

 . tin' <lyc ])n-])arr<l from these has borne a synonymous name in most 

 and to such an extent has this been the case that it is im- 

 possible to say for certain whether the nild of the classic authors of India Mtia. 

 denoted the self-same plant which yields the dye of that name in modern 

 commerce. The word nild simply means dark-blue colour, and is practi- 

 cally synonymous with kdla (black). It is often used adjectivally, such 

 as in nilgao (the blue bull), nilopala (the blue stone or lapis-lazuli), 

 nilamani (the sapphire) and nilufar (the blue water-lily). Nila carries, 

 too, the abstract " darkness," and only becomes a substantive to denote 

 the dye -yielding species of Indigofera at a comparatively recent date. 

 Anil comes from the Arabic al-nil through the Portuguese, and should ^ntf. 

 have been written annil. 



The woad of the early European authors (futitis tiin-foria) is grown vrod. 

 to-day in Centra Asia and has been so for ages past a region where no 

 species of Indigofera has been known to be grown (or possibly could be 

 urown) as a source of indigo. The Sanskrit people may accordingly have 

 first made acquaintance with the indigo of Indigofera in India itself, and 

 it is just possible that their nild may have originally been the woad, which 

 with the ancient Britons was used, like the indigo of the American 

 Indians, to dye the skin and hair. Complex and dillicult though the 

 art of dyeing with Indigo may be, it is thus more intimately associated 

 with the early human race than any other known dye or pigment. 

 And in India it would appear that a far larger number of plants are vriow 

 regularly resorted to as sources of this dye than is the case with almost 

 any other country in the world. In addition to ItHfti* met with on the 

 nmth- west alpine tracts and Afghanistan, mention has, for example, to 

 be made of the rum of Assam and Central China (Strbil<tntln-s /itnti- 

 <li/'o(ins, p. 1051); of the ryom (M<tr<t<'ni<i tin<-tori<f. p. 774), found 

 in the north-eastern tracts, a plant closely allied to the original indigo 

 plant of Java; of an indigo plant (T<-/t/iro#i jmi-/mr<-ti) well known 

 in Bombay and Rajputana and closely allied to one of the iudigoes of tin- 

 Niger and Egypt; of the Nerium or pala indigoes (H'ri<r/tti tin<-fori<i t 



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