3G4 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



CHAPTER XXI. 



RED DYES, (CONTINUED). 



ORCHELLA SAFFLOWER ST. JOHN'S WORT OTA- 



HEITAN DYE TURNSOLE ALKANET HOOT. 



Jtocella tinctorla. 



ORCHELLA, or Rocella tinctoria, is a white moss, 

 growing in some parts of the Archipelago, and in 

 the Canary and Cape de Verd Islands. It is likewise 

 sometimes found on the rocks of Guernsey and the 

 Isle of Portland. 



Pliny * notices this substance as growing 1 on the 

 rocks of different islands, especially those of Crete 

 and Candia ; and mentions that with this moss dyers 

 gave the ground or first tint to those stuffs which they 

 intended to dye with the costly purple. 



The manner of preparing this plant for the pur- 

 pose of dyeing was, however, lost to western Europe 

 ibr many centuries. At the beginning of the four- 

 teenth century the peculiar properties of the orchella 

 were accidently discovered by a Florentine, who had 

 been called by his mercantile pursuits to the Levant. 

 * Lib. xxvi. c. 10. 



