308 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



simple and compound. Simple colours are those 

 which cannot be produced by the admixture of other 

 colours. They are blue, yellow, red, and black ; to 

 these is usually added that peculiar brown colour, 

 with a cast of yellow, which the French call fauve, 

 and which English writers translate either fawn or 

 dun. This is in fact a compound colour, but is 

 ranked among the simple, because it can be applied 

 to cloth by a single process. 



The various vegetable substances which produce 

 the above five colours form the subjects of this divi- 

 sion of our volume. From different combinations of 

 these are derived all those beautiful shades of colour 

 which present a never-ending variety. 



INDIGO. 



The real nature of indigo was not generally known 

 in Europe until a long period after it had been 

 obtained direct from India, the country of its pro- 

 duction, and many erroneous notions existed as to 

 its nature at a comparatively recent period. In the 

 letters patent granted to the proprietors of mines in 

 the principality of Halberstadst, not many centuries 

 ago, indigo was classed among the minerals, to ob- 

 tain which the works were permitted to be erected. 



Marco Polo, indeed, who flourished in the thirteenth 

 century, and who is the earliest European traveller 

 into China and India on record, relates that he saw 

 indigo made in the kingdom of Coulan, and describes 

 the process by which it was prepared. " Indigo," 

 says the old Venetian, " of excellent quality and 

 large quantities, is made here (Coulan). They pro- 

 cure it from an herbaceous plant, which is taken up 

 by the roots and put into tubs of water where it is 

 suffered to remain till it rots, when they press out 

 the juice. This, upon being exposed to the sun and 



