98 3 j|j THE DYERS' WEED, 



dwellings of man; for though not solely found 

 about our habitations, as Miller thought, yet ge- 

 nerally, when perceived, it is near some inhabited 

 or ruined residence, not as a stray from cultivation, 

 but from preference. Our village doctresses, an 

 almost extinct race of useful, valuable women, the 

 consolers, the comforters, and often mitigators of 

 the ailments of the poor, still make use of vervain 

 tea as a strengthener, and the dried powder of its 

 leaves as a vermifuge; but probably in another 

 generation all the venerated virtues of the vervain 

 will be consigned to oblivion. This plant seems to 

 be the native growth of many districts in Europe, 

 Asia, and Africa. 



The dyers' weed, yellow weed, weld, or wold 

 (reseda luteola), thrives in all our abandoned stone 

 quarries, upon the rejected rubbish of the lime- 

 kiln, and waste places of the roads, apparently a 

 perfectly indigenous plant. Unmindful of frost, 

 or of drought, it preserves a degree of verdure, 

 when nearly all other vegetation is seared up by 

 these extremes in exposed situations. It was, and 

 is yet, I believe, cultivated in England for the use 

 of the dyer. We import it, however, into Bristol 

 from France ; and it sells in that city for ten shil- 

 lings per cwt. in a dry state. It gives a fine, 

 permanent, yellow colour to cottons, silks, and 

 woollens, in a variety of shades, by the aid of 

 alum, &c. A blue tincture changes these to as fine 



