INDIGO. 



the negroes in Senegal, observes that these people do 

 not take much trouble to draw the dye out of the 

 . plant. The leaves are gathered at any time in the 

 year, and merely pounded in a mortar till reduced to 

 a paste. This paste is made up into leaves in order 

 to be preserved dry. When required for use it is 

 dissolved in a kind of ley, made of the ashes of an 

 unctuous plant which grows in the fields, and is 

 called by the natives rhemi, in this, the cloth to be 

 dyed is immersed. It is supposed that indigo in this 

 state will keep as long as that which has received 

 the usual preparation ; but the enhanced expense of 

 freight caused by the much greater bulk of the article 

 thus simply prepared, is perhaps a sufficient objec- 

 tion to its importation in that form. 



Indigo is imported into England at a duty of three- 

 pence per pound for that grown in British possessions 

 the addition of another penny per pound is placed on 

 that coming from foreign ports. 



The average quantity of this substance annually 

 imported, for the last five years, is 27,342 chests of 

 East Indian, weighing from 2 to 3 cwt. each ; and 

 3,151 serous, Spanish, weighing about 250 Ibs. each; 

 a considerable portion of which is re-exported to the 

 continent of Europe. 



Another species of indigo was discovered by Dr. 

 Roxburgh, to which he gave the name of coerulva, 

 from the beauty of its colour. It is an erect shrubby 

 species growing naturally in some parts of India on 

 dry, barren, uncultivated grounds, to the height of 

 from one to three feet, and still higher in a better 

 soil. It mainly resembles the indigofera argentettj 

 somewhat differing from that plant in the shape and 

 growth of its leaves. A much finer indigo of a lighter 

 colour was obtained from it, and in a larger pro- 

 portion, than from the common plant. Eight pounds 

 of these leaves gave two hundred and forty grains of 



