Hook VI. SUBSTITUTES FOR DYEING PLANTS. 923 



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

 and by affording but little 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. llie 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. 



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

 dyeing Plants groivn in Britain. 



5992. Though feiv 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 young 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 ^sclfepias syrlaca, f/rtlca diofca (or nettle), Ur- 

 tica canadense (or Canadian nettle), the Spirtium ^unceuni, and C^tisus scopa.rius (brooms), EpiKbium 

 angustifulium, Eri<'phorum polyst^chyon, &c. The ^scl^pia* 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 July. The flowers are succeeded by pods, containing a down or cotton, which the 

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

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

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

 good an article. The Eri6phorum polystkchyon, or cotton grass, grows abundantly in our bogs, and its 

 seeds are furnished with a cottony substance, gathered by the country people to stuff pillows, &c. 'I his 

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

 also been spun and manufactured. The fibre of the 6'partium jiinceum, rush .like, or Sp.nish broom, a 

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

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

 former country. The Epilbbium angustifiMium, 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 from 

 the stems of the wild hop (Hamulus Lupulus), and the same thing has been done in England. {Trans. 

 Sdc. Jr/s. 1791.) Indeed there are few plants 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 ot 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 aays in water ; or is damp, and in a state approaching lo fermentation, or what 

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

 finer, is necessary 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 by 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. {S?nith's 

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



599 J. 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 jear, 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 i ighteen-iience per pound far 



or by boiling them for about an hour in water. This done, the making carpet brooms, &c. M hen strip])ed ftom the twigs, 



flax comes treely from the twigs ; and, where there is not ma- the flax requires only to be well washed in cold water, thin 



chinery for the purpose, may be easily peeled or stripped off, by wrung and shaktn well, and hung out to dry, previously to its 



cliildren or others, at any time when not quite dry, m the same being sent off to the paper manufacturers. {Smitlt'a Me- 



way as hemp is peeled from the stalks. Being cleared of the chunic, vol. ii.) 



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

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

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

 On looking into the Flora Eritdnnica, or Flora Sutcica, 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 G&lium vferum, which, in 1789, when the price of madcer was high, was tried under 

 the authority of the privy council for trade. The Croton tincturium, Genfsta tinctOria, /ih&mnus 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 grown expressly 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 the 

 distillery. 



