302 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



VEGETABLE DYEING SUBSTANCES USED IN THE 

 ARTS. 



DYEING SUBSTANCES INDIGO WOAD. 



THERE are many subtarices which afford a durable 

 colour, and which may therefore be applied success- 

 fully by the simplest people to the purposes of dyeing, 

 without being subjected to any previous preparation. 

 This application can scarcely be called an art. But 

 to make permanent that which is evanescent in its 

 nature, and not only to arrest the fugitive tints, but 

 to give to them greater brilliancy, and by curious 

 combinations to impart every varying hue, this may 

 more properly be termed the art of dyeing. 



It would be of little avail to search out passages, 

 many of them obscure and contradictory, from various 

 ancient sources, to assist our conjectures as to the 

 origin of the art of dyeing, and with what success it 

 was practised by -the nations of antiquity. It may 

 be sufficient to mention, that the practical methods 

 of communicating various colours to stuffs was toler- 

 ably well understood at Rome ; and we can trace 

 some of the ingredients then used for this purpose, 

 as retaining a conspicuous and useful place in the 

 dye-houses of the present day. 



We learn from the Italian chronicles that as early as 

 the year 776, when Charlemagne, who had recently 

 obtained possession of all upper Italy by conquering 

 the Lombards, was at Pavia, with all his court, a 

 number of Venetian merchants flocked thither and 





