FLOWERS OF THE SEA-COAST 



and August is the time to see it in flower, though it is occasionally in 

 bloom in May. It is biennial. 



The flowers are fairly large and conspicuous, and are numerous; but 

 Woad is not largely visited by insects, and is as a rule self-pollinated. 

 The fruit is dispersed by its own mechanism. The pods do not 



open, but fall, partly 

 aided by the wind, at 

 some distance from the 

 parent plant, being 

 pendulous when ripe. 

 Woad is a sand-lov- 

 ing plant, and requires 

 a sand soil, growing in 

 districts where sand- 

 stone rocks contribute 

 to form a sandy soil 

 at the surface. 



No fungus infests 

 it, and Aphis brassier 

 is the only insect that 

 lives on it. 



By Pliny, Woad 

 was called Glastuni, 

 hence the name Glas- 

 tonbury (Welsh glas, 

 blue; Gaelic glas, 

 grey, green). \Voad 

 is akin to Vitrum, 

 the Latin name for it. 

 Dioscorides gave the 

 name Isatis, and tinc- 

 toria refers to the 

 dyeing properties. 



Woad is called 

 Ash of Jerusalem, Dyer's Weed, Goud, Ode, Woad, Wad. 



When the leaves are used as a dye they are covered with boiling 

 water, steeped for an hour, and weighted down. The water is then 

 poured off, and the leaves are treated with caustic potash and then 

 with hydrochloric acid, yielding an indigo-blue. Woad mills are still 

 worked at Wisbech, but the use of indigo has superseded it, and it is 

 only used to fix indigo. 



Photo. T. R. Godclard 



WOAD (Isatis linctoria, L.) 



