SAFFRON. 153 



Besides its roots, madder yields an abundance of leaves which are 

 excellent forage. 



Reseda luleola, or dyers' weed, is a plant in common use, and owes 

 its properties as a dye-stuff to the presence of a yellow crystalline 

 principle, luteoline, discovered by M. Chevreul, This substance is 

 soluble in ether, alcohol, and alkaline solutions. 



Dyers' weed is sown in autumn, stands throug-h the winter, and 

 ripens in the month of August following. The plant is gathered 

 when it begins to turn yellow, and it is in a marketable state after it 

 is dried. An acre of land will produce about 1833 lbs. weight of 

 marketable dye-weed. 



Saffron. This plant is cultivated in the south of France and 

 in Austria, but appears to be a native of Asia. Saffron requires a 

 light and yet fertile soil in order to produce abundantly, although it 

 may also be cultivated in soils of middling quality. The ground, 

 trenched one spit deep, is set out with bulbs from an old plantation. 

 In the south the transplanting takes place in the month of June. 

 The first flowers appear towards the middle of October; they are 

 few during the first year. They are gathered, and the pistils removed ; 

 the gathering continues for about a fortnight. In the course of the 

 year which follows the planting, the ground receives a surface dress- 

 ing ; it is freed from weeds, and the withered leaves are removed. 

 The next gathering takes place at the same period as the former, 

 but the flowers are now much more abundant, and the same process 

 is continued until the roots are taken up, which they are in France 

 at the end of the second year ; but in Austria the culture is contin- 

 ued for a much longer period in the same piece of ground. The 

 extraction of the pistils is an occupation in which the whole family 

 of the saffron-grower take part, and employ their evenings ; in the 

 course of an evening of five hours, eight persons will generally 

 have drawn 250 grammes or about 8 ounces of saffron In some 

 places the pistils are dried in the sun, in others by being exposed in 

 a sieve over a fire of twigs ; the latter process appears to be the 

 better one. 



M. de Gasparin estimates at about 110 lbs. the saffron which is 

 gathered in the course of two years from about 2,Vths acres of land ; 

 this would give a mean annual produce of about 43.7 lbs. per Eng- 

 lish acre, and the price of saffron being from 27 to 28 shillings per 

 pound, the value of the produce may easily be reckoned. In Aus- 

 tria, where the crop is allowed to occupy the ground for three years, 

 the produce has been estimated at about 19| lbs. per acre per annum. 



Roucou is a dye-stuff extracted from the fruit of the Bixa orel- 

 lana, a tree which is extremely common in the hot regions of South- 

 ern America. 



Chica. This and the former dye-stuff are in use among the na- 

 tive Americans for staining the skin. It is obtained from the leaves 

 of the Bignojua chica, which are of a beautiful green when fresh, 

 but become red by drying. 



Chica has the color of cinnabar: it is without taste and without 

 ftmell : a mass of this pigment may be compared to a mass of indigo 



