MAfiDER. 91 



SECTION VI 



Madder. 

 Rubia tinctorum. Linn. 



This is a native of the south of France, and flowers in July, 

 The root is perennial, long, round, jointed, beset with small fibres ; 

 externally of a bright red, but towards the center yellowish* The 

 branches stand in pairs at the articulations of the stalks, and upon 

 their various subdivisions produce small terminal flowers of a yel- 

 lowish colour. 



Madder is frequently meutioned by the Greek writers, who em- 

 ployed its roots with the same medicinal intentions for which they 

 now are recommended by most of the modern writers on the Materia 

 Medica. Our knowledge of the first cultivation of this plant in 

 England is from Gerard * ; and though an extensive cultivation of 

 Madder in Britain seems to promise considerable advantage, both 

 to the planter and to the nation, yet we find that the great quantity 

 of madder roots used here by the dyers and calico-printersj has 

 been for many years almost wholly the growth and export of Hol- 

 land +. Madder appears to differ from other substances used for 

 the purpose of dying, in having the peculiar property ^ of tinging 

 with a florid red colour not only the milk, urine, &c. but evert 

 the bones of those animals which have fed upon it; a circumstance 

 which was first noticed by Antonius Mizaldus ||, but not known in 

 England till Mr. Belchier published an account of a pig and acock^ 



* Vide Hort. Kew. 



t Miller Diet, in which is also given a full account of the cultivation of tbis 

 plant. But we are happy to observe, that by the laudable endeavours of the 

 Society for the Encouragement of ArU, &c. considerable quantities of English 

 madder have been produced, and found as good at least, if not better than any 

 imported. See Transactions, p. 10. vol. i. 



^ Some other plants of the same natural order (stellatae) have also the effect 

 of tinging the bones, as the gallium mollugo and aparine. Vide Guettard 

 Mem. de 1'Ac. de Sc. a. 1746 & 1747. And the valantiaeruciata. Bohmer Diss, 

 de rad. rub. tinct. p. 42. 



<j Bonmer also found the serum of the blood reddened by the madder. Diss, 

 rad. rub. tinct. &c. p. 13. And Levret observes, that it sometimes tinged the 

 excretion by the skin. Sur les Accoucbeaiens, p. 278. 



|j Memorab. ut. acjacunda Cent. 7. Aph. 91. Lutet; 1566. 

 u2 



