INDIGO. 453 



doubt but that beautiful and permanent dyes, from brown to a 

 very rich purple, might be cheaply procured by scientific pre- 

 parations of the common heather (Genista tinctoria). The in- 

 habitants of Skye exhibited cloth with a peculiarly rich dye, ob- 

 tained from the "crobal" moss. In the Spanish department, 

 specimens of vegetable dyes from many cultivated and wild plants 

 were furnished by the Agricultural Board of Saragossa, and of 

 several of these it would be important to obtain descriptions and 

 particulars. 



Grums are of essential importance to the dyer, and the imports 

 of these, therefore, are large, averaging about 8,000 tons. 



INDIGK). 



THE plants which afford this dye grow chiefly in the East and "West 

 Indies, in the middle regions of America, in Africa and Europe. 

 They are all species of the genera Indigofera, Isatis and Nerium. 

 Indigofera tinctoria or carulea, furnishes the chief indigo of com- 

 merce, and affords in Bengal, Malabar, Madagascar, the Isle of 

 France, and St. Domingo, an article of middling quality, but not 

 in large quantity. The Indigofera disperma, a plant cultivated in 

 the East Indies and America, grows higher than the preceding, 

 is woody, and furnishes a superior dye-stuff. The Gruatamela 

 indigo comes from this species. 



Indigofera Anil grows in the same countries, and also in the 

 West Indies. The Indigofera Argentea, which flourishes in Africa, 

 yields little indigo, but it is of an excellent quality. I. pseudo- 

 tinctoria, cultivated in the East Indies, furnishes the best of all. 

 /. glauca is the Egyptian and Arabian species. There are also 

 the cinerea, erecta (a native of Gruinea), hirsuta, glabra, with red 

 flowers, species common to the East, and several others. 



The Wrightia tinctoria, of the East Indies, an evergreen, with 

 white blossoms, affords some indigo, as does the Isatis tinctoria, 

 or, Woad, in Europe, and the Polygonum tinctorium, with red 

 flowers, a native of China. Baptisia tinctoria furnishes a blue 

 dye, and is the wild indigo of the United States. 



SOURCES OF SUPPLY. Indigo is at present grown for com- 

 mercial purposes in Bengal, and the other provinces of that 

 Presidency, from the 20th to the 30th deg. of north latitude ; in 

 the Province of Tinnevelly ; in the Madras Presidency ; in Java, 

 in the largest of the Philippine islands, in Guatemala, Caraccas, 

 Central America and Brazil. Bengal is, however, the chief mart for 

 indigo, and the quantity produced in other places is comparatively 

 inconsiderable. It is also still cultivated in some of the West India 

 islands, especially St. Domingo, but not in large quantities. Indigo 

 grows wild in several parts of Palestine, but attention seems not to 

 have been given to its cultivation or collection. On most parts of 

 the eastern and western coasts of Africa, it is indigenous ; at Sierra 

 Leone, Natal, and other places it is found abundant. 



