RED SAUNDERS. 363 



black ; within it is of a brighter red, but becomes 

 brown on exposure to the air. This wood is never 

 employed without being pulverized. It is slow of 

 imparting its colour to water, but yields it readily to 

 alcohol. It does not produce much colouring matter 

 when used alone, but this is a permanent dye. 

 Its colouring matter is found to dissolve much better 

 when mixed with astringent substances, such as 

 walnut-peels, sumach, or nutgalls. With a solution 

 of this in dilute spirit and on a tin mordant, Volger 

 produced a poppy-red ; on alum, a scarlet ; on sul- 

 phate of copper, a crimson ; and on sulphate of 

 iron, a deep violet colour. 



A very trifling importation of this wood is now 

 received into England. The duty charged upon it 

 is Is. per ton. Its price varies from l$ to ,19 

 per ton. 



The people of Sumatra, who have great skill in 

 extracting and imparting dyes, and who are in pos- 

 session of a vegetable black dye, which is said to be 

 much wanted by us, derive good red colouring matter 

 from several other trees and shrubs. 



From the outer parts of the root of a tree (Mo- 

 rinda citrifolid), by drying, pounding, and boiling 

 them in water they procure a red dye, to fix which 

 they employ the ashes yielded by the burning of the 

 stalks of the fruit and mid-ribs of the leaves of the 

 cocoa-nut tree. 



Oobar is a red wood which they use in colouring 

 their fishing-nets. It resembles the logwood of 

 Honduras, and, in the opinion of Mr. Marsden, 

 might be substituted for that product. 



Mr. Marsden remarks, that the Sumatrans are 

 acquainted with no purple dye, nor apparently are 

 any of the Indian nations, though the art is most 

 ancient among them, and some others of their 

 colours are of unrivalled beauty. 



