174 PERELLE. 



MRS. F. 



From a Mr. Cuthbert, who first brought it into use. It is 

 employed to produce a purple for dying woollen yarn; and is 

 used for that purpose, to a great extent, at Glasgow. It 

 grows in Sicily and Norway, and from the latter country, it 

 is mostly imported; but it is also abundant in parts of Scot- 

 land, and many an industrious Highlander gains a living by 

 scraping off this lichen with an iron hoop, and sending it to 

 the Glasgow market. The French Perelle, which comes from 

 Auvergne and other parts of France, is a kindred species of 

 the same genus (LecanoraParella^bnt it produces a dye far 

 superior to cudbear, and quite equal to that of Archill (Roccella 

 tinctoria^ to which we are now come.* 



FREDERIC^. 



That too is a singular name. 



MRS. F. 



Its several appellations of Roccella, Orceille, Archill, 

 Orchill, are^derivedfrom a Florentine family of the Oricellarii, 

 Rucellarii, or Rucellai, one of whom carried on a considera- 

 ble trade in the Levant, and returning with great wealth to 

 Florence, first made known in Europe the art of dyeing with 

 this plant, which was exported from the islands of the Archi- 

 pelago. This interesting lichen yields the most valuable dye 

 of this tribe; it is found on steep rocks of the Scilly Islands, 

 and in the south of England, but it is far more abundantly 

 produced in warm climates, and particularly in the Cape de 

 Verd and Canary Islands, whence it has also been called the 

 Canary weed, and where it was discovered towards the 

 commencement of the last century, and soon placed among 

 the royal monopolies of the Spanish crown. Its value quick- 

 ly excited the attention of the Portuguese, who collected it 

 without restriction, in the Cape de Verd Islands, Madeira, 

 Porto Santo, and the Azores, until the Jesuits, in 1730, pro- 

 cured from John V, the privilege of collecting it. The 



* Several species of Pannelia are also collected by the Scotch 

 peasantry to dye woollen stuffs a dirty purple. 



