DYES. 



N. O. 200. ARTOCARPACE^E. ARTOCARPADS. 

 Urostigma religiosum. Miff. 



Linn. Syst. Polygamia Moncecia. 



The colouring matter extracted from the Stick Lac, Lac Dye, 

 Lac Lake. 



Vernacular. Pippula, Sans. Ashwertha, Beng. Pippul, Hind. 

 Ani-peejnil, Beng. /trealu, Mai. Arasiim-mamm, Tarn. Ray, 

 Raghie, Tel. Bogaha, Cey. 



Habitat. India, within and beyond the Ganges. 



Remarks. Of Western writers, first described by the Arabs (Aba 

 Hanifa). Amongst the Indians it is cf immemorial renown, but I do not 

 know in which of their books it is first noticed. The term Lac applied 

 to Gum-lac by the Hindus, is tlie same as lac, an hundred thousand, from 

 the multitude of insects found in it. Lac-lake, or Lac-dye, is dissolved 

 out of the Lac with boiling water, and then obtained by evaporation. 

 The colouring matter is derived from the female of Coccus Lacca. Other 

 insects of this genus also afford a similar colouring matter. The female of 

 Coccus Ilicis found on Quercus cocci/era, W. the Kermes Oak is 

 Kermes ; the female of Coccus Cacti found on O/mntia cochiniUifera ; 

 the Nopal of Mexico is Cochineal ; and the female of Coccus polonicus, 

 found on the roots of Scleranthus perennis, according to some, but of 

 Polygonum cocciferum according to others, and probably also other 

 species of root-Cocci as they are called, are the Scarlet Grains of Poland. 

 Cochineal was not known to Europeans before 1518, although often called 

 Coccus Indicus tinctorius, and Ficus Indies grana : but similarly we speak 

 of Maize as Indian and Turkey corn, of species of Tropceolum as Indian 

 Cress, and call the Turkey by that name, and the French, Cocq d'lnde, 

 although Turkeys, Indian Cress, and Maize are indigenous to America. 

 Indian, in these and analgous instances, simply means rare, precious, large, 

 and the like. Kermes, which before the introduction of Cochineal from 

 America, was universally employed for dyeing scarlet, now obtained from 

 the latter has been known and used from the earliest ages. It is the Tola 

 of Moses, wherewith the hangings of the tabernacle and the sacred vest- 

 ments of the Hebrew priesthood were twice dyed. Sardis was celebrated 

 for this scarlet dye, as Tyre and Crete for their resplendent purples, the 

 Tyrian being obtained from shell-fish (as was also the red (?) of 

 Tarentum), and the Cretan tincture from a plant which Theophrastus, 

 Dioscorides, and Pliny, respectively, call TO KQVTIOV $VK.OS, <})VKOS 6a\aa-<riov, 

 and phycos thallassion, but which was however not a sea-weed 

 (i. e. Algal), but a Lichen, identical probably with one of the species from 

 which the Orchil purple of modern art is prepared. (See N. O. 273.) 

 That the celebrated purples of the ancients were amethystine, or violet 

 in hue, and not red as some have stated, is directly proved by their 

 comparing the Tyrian with the Cretan purple, the latter of which 

 they considered the more brilliant. We have an oblique confirmation 

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