118 AGRICULTURE IN THE TROPICS [PT. II 



Annatto. This dye, variously known as annatto, anotto, 

 arnatto, roucou, etc., -is to some small extent cultivated in 

 Guiana, Ceylon, etc. The plant producing it, Bixa Orellana, 

 grows into a small tree, and bears little pods containing seeds, 

 each surrounded by a fleshy reddish-yellow coat. The seeds are 

 collected and placed in hot water to macerate ; they are then 

 pounded up with a pestle, strained off from the dye stuff and 

 thrown away, and the dye stuff is dried. There is a small 

 industry in this dye, but it is only small. 



Other dyes. Other dyestuffs, of more or less local im- 

 portance, are obtained from the rhizomes or root-stocks of 

 Curcuma longa, the turmeric, from the wood of Caesalpinia 

 Sapan, the sapanwood, and Haematoxylon Campechianum, the 

 logwood, and from a fair number of other plants, more especially 

 in India and Java, where the natives have known of them for 

 centuries. 



Tanning Substances. Perhaps the most important of 

 these is the cutch of Bombay, with which the true "khaki" 

 cloth is dyed and shrunk. This is the wood of Acacia Catechu 

 and other species, cut up and boiled down to give a strong 

 extract. Gambier, in the Straits Settlements, is also of some 

 importance ; the twigs and leaves of the shrub ( Uncaria 

 gambir) are boiled down to give an extract. Mangrove bark 

 also gives a cutch of some value, and was formerly exploited in 

 Ceylon by a company which has since given up operations. 

 The pods of the divi-divi (Caesalpinia coriaria) are exported 

 from the West Indies and Colombia, and a good many other 

 plants also yield tannin in sufficient quantity to be worth 

 collecting, at least upon a small scale, for local use. 



