54 VEGETABLE DYES. 



matters as are capable of being used as dyes of textile fabrics. These are very varied, 

 and are also chiefly found in southern countries. This series comprehends nearly all 

 the known dyes, since but few (as the cochineal insect) belong either to the animal or 

 mineral kingdom. The chief substances are 



Indigo, of which no less a quantity than 70,482 cwts. were imported in 1850. It is 

 the product of the leaves of the Indigofera tinctoria, and I. anil, growing in the low 

 districts of India and South America. It is a fast dye, if in the process of dyeing it 

 be first deoxidized, but otherwise it is not permanent. It yields the Indigo colour, 

 and also a green when mixed with yellow. 



Madder is one of the most useful and common dyes, and is derived from the root of 

 the Rub-la tinctori-i. Its home is Naples, France, and the North of Europe. 2,985 tons 

 were imported for this purpose in 1850. It forms one of the most permanent dyes, and 

 constitutes the Turkey red dye, so celebrated for its brilliancy. Garancine is the red 

 principle of madder, obtained by the action of sulphuric acid. 2,985 tons of this sub- 

 stance were imported from France in 1850. 



Logwood is the wood of the Hcematoxylon campechianwn, found in the Bays of Cam- 

 peachy, and Honduras, in Central America. Its value is sufficiently great to cause the 

 right cutting it to be the subject of a treaty between this country and the States in 

 which it grows. Its colour is red, but black when precipitated with iron, purple with 

 tin and alum, and brown with copper. 3,500 tons were imported in 1850. 



Brazil wood, from the Ccesalpina braziliensis, is one of the largest importations of 

 dye woods, 3,120 tons were imported in 1850. 



Amongst the remaining dyes are alkanet root, from the Anchusa tinctoria, grown in 

 Asia and the North of Europe ; Nut-galls, an excrescence on an oak, the Quercus infectoria, 

 in Turkey ; Saffloiver, produced in Southern Asia, Egypt, and the Levant, from the 

 dried flowers of the Carthamus tinctoria ; Annatto, a South American orange-colouring 

 matter, from the seed of the Bixa orellana ; Turmeric, from the root of a cucumber, the 

 Circuma, longa of India ; Peach wood, or Nicaragua wood, of the Ccesalpina, from South 

 America ; Fustic, the wood of the Rhus cotinus of Cuba ; Camwood, from the Baphil 

 nitida of Sierra Leone ; Quercitron bark of South America, from another oak, the 

 Quercus tinctoria ; the alder bark of this country, from the Alnus glutinosa ; Catechu, 

 an extract of the wood of the Indian Acacia Catechu ; red sanders, from the Pterocarpus 

 santalinus of India ; the Persian berries, from the Rhamnus infectoria of the Levant ; 

 and many others of less note. 



It is worthy of remark, that the lowly- organised Cryptogamic cellular plants, or 

 lichens, afford colouring matters in great abundance, under the designations of Orchall 

 and Cudbear. The following are the chief : Ramdnia furfuracea, from Angola ; 

 Rncccllafuciformis, from Mauritius, Madagascar, Lima, and Valparaiso ; Roccella tinctoria, 

 from the Cape de Verd Islands ; Parmelia perlata, from the Canaries ; with the Parmelia 

 tartarca, Umbilicaria pustulata, and Gyrophora murina, of Sweden. 



We have purposely avoided the chemical questions which naturally arise when 

 considering the interesting and important vegetable products which have been passed 

 in review ; but we cannot omit to state here, that, although the widely-distributed 

 substances starch, sugar, and gum are apparently so very diverse in their external 

 characters and general properties, they have very close chemical relation. Indeed, so 

 closely are they associated that they are daily and hourly converted in the living 

 plants, the one into the other, in the order in which we have placed them viz., starch 



