THE TYRIAN PURPLE. 



71 



which imparted its chief value to the real dye. The same 

 reasons prevent us concurring in the guesses of those who 

 enumerate the Aplysia depilans and Scalaria clathrus among- 

 the Purples.* 



Fig. 11. 



From the simplicity of the art of dyeing with the Tyrian 

 purple, the simple application of the fluid to the dress and 

 exposure to light, without any further process, and without 

 the use of any mordant, being all that is necessary, its early 

 discovery was to be expected. Accordingly we are told that 

 it was the first colour which mankind were enabled to fix per- 

 manently on wool and linen ; and its invention is lost in fable. 

 While a certain Hercules strolled along the shore with his 

 lady-love and her dog, the latter, in its sport, mouthed a 

 shell which had been tossed up by the waves, and had his lips 

 coloured with the purple juice. The lady, surprised with 

 the beauty of the colour, yearned for a dress of the same 

 purple, and the wish sufficed to call into exercise the inge- 

 nuity of her lover, who was enabled to gratify her wishes ! 

 This discovery is presumed to have been made 1400, or, at 

 the utmost, 1500 years before the Christian era ; and it was 

 perhaps the principal commodity of Tyre when its "mer- 

 chants were princes, and its traffickers the honourable of the 

 earth." You well know how greatly its beauty and perman- 

 ency have been lauded by poets as well as naturalists ; but 



* Edin. New Phil. Journ. v. 403. 



