Book VI. SUBSTITUTES FOR DYEING PLANTS. 923 



most other manufactorial plants it is considered an impovcrisher of the ground; both by exhausting it, 

 and by affording but httle haulm as manure. 



5990. The soil it requires is light, and the preparation and culture, according to Von 

 Thaer, equal to that of the garden. The seed is sown in rows, or deposited in patches 

 two feet apart every way, and when the plants come up, they are thinned out, so as to 

 leave only two or three together. The soil is stirred and weeded during summer. In 

 August the flowers begin to expand : the petals of the florets are then to be cut off with 

 a blunt knife, and dried in the shade, or on a kiln, like the true saffron. This operation 

 is performed in the early part of the day, and continued daily till October. The plants 

 are then pulled up, sheaved and shocked, and threshed for their seed. 



5991. The use of the flower of bastard saffron is chiefly in dyeing. It is also put in 

 soups, pies, and puddings, like the leaves of the marigold or the common saffron. The oil 

 produced from the seed is used both in medicine and painting. The stalks of the plants 

 are commonly burnt for manure. 



Subsect. 8. Various Plants which have been proposed as Substitutes for the Thread and 



dyeing Plants groivn in Britain. 



*5992. Though few of these are likely to come into cultivation, yet it may be useful to 

 notice them, with a view to indicating our resources for extraordinary occasions ; to lead- 

 ing the voting cultivator to reflect on the richness of that immense store-house, the 

 vegetable kingdom ; and to pointing out sources of experiment and research for the 

 amateur agriculturist. Every kind of limitation has a tendency to degrade the mind, and 

 lessen enterprise. The plants to be here enumerated, naturally arrange themselves as 

 thread plants and colouring plants. 



5993. The thread plants that have been tried are the v^sclepias syrlaca, f/rtlca dioiea (or nettle), I't. 

 t*ca canadense (or Canadian nettle), the Spartium ./imccum, and Cytisus scoparius .brooms), EpiK bium 

 angustifMium, Eri.'phorum polvsta'chvon, &c. The Wsclepia* syriaca, Syrian swallow. wort, or Virginian 

 silk, is a creeping rooted perennial, with strong erect stems from four to six feet high. It is a native of 

 Virginia, and flowers in Julv. The flowers are succeeded by pods, containing a down or cotton, which the 

 poor people in Virginia collect and fill their beds with. In Germany, and especially at Leignitz, attempts 

 were made, in 1790 and 1800, Von Thaer informs us, to cultivate the plant as a substitute lor cotton. It 

 was found to grow readilv on a poor soil ; but the growers could not undersell the importers, nor produce so 

 good an article. The Er'iophorum polvstachvon, or cotton grass, grows abundantly in our bogs, and its 

 seeds are furnished with a cottonv substance', gathered by the country people to stuff pillows, &c. This 

 substance has been spun and woven into very good cloth. The common nettle aftbrds a fibre which has 

 also been spun and manufactured. The fibre of the Spartium ./unceum, rush-like, or Spanish broom, a 

 native of the south of Europe, but quite hardy in Britain, is made into very good cloth both in the south 

 of France and in Spain. The fibre of the common broom makes an inferior description of cordage in the 

 former country. The Epilbbium angustifulium, and other species of willow herb, common by the sides of 

 brooks, afford "a very good fibre, as do a great variety of plants : and in Sweden a strong cloth is made trom 

 the stems of the wild hop Hiimulus Lupulus 1 , and the same thing has been done in England. {Trans. 

 Soc. Arts.V19l.) Indeed there are few ulants the fibres of which might not be separated and rendered 

 available for the purpose of spinning threads for weaving into cloth, or of mashing for making paper The 

 fibres of all nettles and square-stalked herbaceous plarts answer for the former purpose ; and both the 

 fibres and bark of several plants, for the latter. The fibres of all the herbaceous mallows are uncommonly 

 white, and finer than camel's hair ; and in Germany they are used in making an imitation of India paper 

 for engravers. The filaments of the common field-bean are among the strongest yet discovered : these, 

 with a little beating, rubbing, and shaking, are easily separated from the strawy part, when the plant has 

 been steeped ten or twelve davs in water ; or is damp, and in a state approaching to fermentation, or what 

 is commonly called retting. \Vashing or pulling it through heckles, or iron combs, first coarse, and then 

 finer, is necessarv to the dressing of bean hemp ; and is perhaps the easiest mode of separating the fila- 

 ments from the thin membrane that surrounds them. The fibre of the common nettle is very similar to 

 that of hemp or flax, inclining to either according to the soil and different situations in which it grows; 

 and it has been shown bv experiment, that they may be used for the same purposes as hemp or flax, from 

 cloth of the finest texture down to the coarsest quality, such as sail-cloth, sacking, cordage, &c. {Smith t 

 Mechanic, vol. ii.) It might be worth the attention of any one who had leisure to collect a tew, say only 

 two, stalks, of a great number of species from a botanic garden, to immerse them a sufficient time in soft 

 soap and warm water, and prove their absolute and comparative value as fibre plants. 



5994. Broom Jlax is prepared by steeping the twigs or most flax, and steeped for some time in boiling -water, the twig, or 

 vigorous shoots of the former tear, for two or three weeks, more wood, becomes tough and beautifully white, and is worth, at a 

 or less, according to the heat'of the season, in stagnant water, medium, from a shilling to ughuen-pence per pound tor 

 or bv boiling them for about an hour in water. Thss done, the making carpet brooms, &c. \\ hen stripped from the twigs, 

 flaxcomes treelv from the twigs ; and, where there is not ma- the ilax requires only to be well washed in cold water, thin 

 chinerv for the purpose, mav be easily peeled or stripped off, bv wrung and shaken well, and hung out to dry, previously to its 

 children or others, at any time when not quite dry, in the same being sent off to the paper manufacturers. [Strath l Me- 

 way as hemp is peeled from the stalks. Being cleared of the clmmc, vol.il.) 



5995. Of colouring plants, the number that may be, and even are employed, is almost endless. The 

 reader has only to look into anv botanical catalogue, and observe the number of plants whose specific 

 names are forriied from the adjective tinctbrius ; and these, though numerous, are still only a small part 

 On looking into the Flora Britdnnica, 01 Flora Siucica, he will there find a number of plants, trees, and 

 even mosses and ferns used for dyeing. A number have been tried in this country and given up ; as an 

 instance, we mention Galium verum, which, in 1789, when the price of madder was high, was tried under 

 the authority of the privy council for trade. The t'r.Mon tincti.rium, Genista tinctona, Ahamnus cathar- 

 ticus and infectbrius, and Plantago Psyllium, are cultivated in France as dyeing plants. 



Sect. II. Plants cultivated for the Brewery and Distillery. 



5996. Of plants groivn erpressly for their use in the brewery, the only one of conse- 

 quence is the hop ; the anise and caraway are grown on a very limited scale for th" 

 distillery. 



