286 SELECT PLANTS FOR INDUSTRIAL CULTURE 



Japan j also occurring in various parts of Africa, as far 

 south as Caffraria and Natal. This perennial plant produces 

 a kind of madder. Probably other species likewise yield 

 dye-roots. The genus is represented widely over the globe, 

 but, as far as known, not in Australia. 



Rubia peregrina, Linne. 



Middle and South Europe, South- West Asia. This perennial 

 species also yields madder- root. Several other kinds deserve 

 comparative test -culture. 



Rubia tinctorum, Linne. 



The Madder. Countries around the Mediterranean Sea. A 

 perennial herb of extremely easy culture. Soil fit for barley 

 suits, also for madder. Its culture opens any deep subsoil and 

 suffocates weeds, but requires much manure, leaving then, 

 however, the land enriched. Any stagnant water in the soil 

 must be avoided, if madder is to succeed. The harvest is in 

 the second or third year. It can be raised from seeds or 

 planted from offshoots. The roots merely dried and pounded 

 form the dye. The chemical contents are numerous : in the 

 herb, rubichloric and rubitannic acid ; in the root, alizarin, 

 purpurin, rubiacin, rubian, ruberythrin acid, and three 

 distinct resins ; also chlorogenin, xanthin, and rubichloric 

 acid. On the five first depend the pigments produced from 

 the root. Madder is one of the requisites for alizarin ink. 

 Since the manufacture of artificial alizarin from anthacene, a 

 constituent of coal-tar, has commenced, the cultivation of 

 madder has declined. Still it remains a valuable root, handy 

 for domestic dye. 



Rubus Canadensis, Linne.* 



The Dewberry of North America. A shrub of trailing habit. 

 Fruit black, of excellent taste, ripening earlier than that of 

 R. villosus (Ait.), which constitutes the High Blackberry of 

 the United States, with large fruits. 



Rubus Chamsemorus, Linne. 



The Cloudberry. North Europe, North Asia, North America, 

 particularly in the frigid zone. A perennial but herbaceous 

 plant ; a pigmy amongst its congeners. Nevertheless it is 

 recommended for introduction to spongy, mossy, Alpine moors, 

 on accounb of its grateful amber-coloured or red fruit. All 

 the species can readily be raised from seeds. H. Articus 

 (L.) , also with edible fruit, is in the high north usually its 



