OTAHEITAN DYE. 373 



with other acids it exhibits a yellow colour, which 

 proves that it contains two colouring matters, ca- 

 pable of separate solution in different menstrua. If 

 alum, combined with a certain portion of potash, be 

 used as a mordant, a bright yellow dye is obtained ; 

 by increasing the quantity of the mordant the colour 

 somewhat inclines to green, and by the addition of a 

 solution of tin in nitro-muriatic acid, according to 

 the proportion used, rose, cherry, or crimson hues, 

 all of a fine lustre, will be produced. 



This juice can be made to assume a concrete 

 form by being exposed in shallow dishes to the 

 moderate heat of an oven. If then it be reduced to 

 powder, it will readily combine by trituration with 

 turpentine. The resin, thus saturated with the juice, 

 can be mixed with olive oil, and forms the oil of 

 St. John's wort, sometimes used in pharmacy. 

 Incorporated with linseed oil, and with the addition 

 of a small portion of oil of turpentine, a fine red 

 varnish is produced, which may be advantageously 

 employed for coating articles of furniture made of 

 wood *. 



An exceedingly beautiful red, surpassing onr 

 scarlet in intensity and brilliancy, is, it is said, pro- 

 duced in Otaheite, by a process which argues some 

 advancement in the knowledge of domestic arts. 

 This red dye is obtained by the admixture of two 

 vegetable juices, neither of which separately has the 

 least tendency to assume that hue. One of these 

 juices is produced from a species of fig, the fruit of 

 which is not bigger than a very small gooseberry. 

 The stalk being broken off very close to the fruit, each 

 fig produces one drop of a milky liquor resembling- 

 the juice of common figs. This liquor is collected and 

 mixed with a very small quantity of cocoa-nut milk. 

 * Annales 4e Cbiraie ; Nichol. Jour. vol. vi. 



