Chap. 5,] Art of Dying, 59 



colour j the flower of carthamus or baflard faffron, 

 which affords a very fine red ; archil, which is a pafte 

 prepared with mofifes, macerated in urine with lime, 

 and which dyes red, The colour of indigo alfo refides 

 in a refmous matter. 



Certain colouring fubftances are fbluble in oils. Al- 

 kanet, or the red root of a kind of burgjofs, is of this 

 kind, but cannot be ufed in dying. 



We may eafily conceive that a coloured decoction 

 may ftain any (luff which is dipped into it, and that this 

 colouring matter may be again abftracted by the applica- 

 tion of the fame menftruum as it was originally fufpended 

 in. But the action of thofe dyes, which, although once 

 diflbl ved and fufpended in water, cannot again, after they 

 are applied to fluffs, be wafhed out, is not fo eafily under- 

 ilood. Thefe latter, or durable dyes, alone deferve atten- 

 tion. Dyes of different colours require different treat- 

 ment. Stuffs to be dyed of a red or yellow colour muft 

 be boiled in water, with alum or fixed alkali, before they 

 are dipped into the dying decoctions : the red colour- 

 ing materials are kermes, cochineal, gum^lac, and mad- 

 der ; the yellow materials are luteola or dyers weed, 

 and other yellow flowers. The fluffs for b&e dyes re- 

 quire no previous preparation. Thefe blue dyes are 

 made of indigo, or the blue fecula obtained from -woad, 

 difiblved in a lixivium of fixed alkali, or in urine, with 

 or without the addition of fome green vitriol. The 

 (luffs intended to receive a root colour, require no pre- 

 vious preparation, but to be foaked in warm water. 

 Thefe dyes are chiefly decoctions of walnut-itiells, wal- 

 nut-roots, alder-bark, fumach, and launders. Thefe 

 root colours, which are all yellow, ferve to form a very 

 good ground, on which other more brilliant colours 

 may be applied, and to them no faline or other matter 

 is added. The black dyes, which are inks or decoctions 

 6 of 



