No. 129.] 437 



supplies were greatly diminished by the war. Napoleon offered 

 high premiums for the discovery of some indigenous substanc* 

 which might supply its place. Inquiry was universally excited^ 

 experiments tried on a variety of plants, and from the researches 

 of the savans, it was ascertained that pure indigo could be ex- 

 tracted from Polygonum-Chinense, barbatum, aviculare, fagopy- 

 rum, buckwheats, galegatinctoria, hedisarium, cicevarietinum 

 or common ashes, the chick-pea — lucertie, scabiosa succisa oi 

 devil-bit, vaccinium myrtyllus, robinia caragana, a Siberian shrub, 

 centauria cayanus, or blue bottle, geuippa-Americana polygons, 

 or milk wort, sophora tinctoria, spilanthus, acerubrum, or a spe- 

 cies of the maple, lotus corniculatus, or bird's foot trefoil, or 

 ,milk-vetch, lignum nephriticum, guilandina moringa, a wood of 

 South America, inula helenium or elecampane, cica, Chilidonium 

 magus or common celandine, quercus oak, or the heart of various 

 species of the oak, sambucus nigra and ebulus, coronilla fruticosa, 

 agaricus campestris, or mushroom, cestrum-tinctorium or licheuj 

 numerous species, dolichos-lablab, or Egyptian kidney bean, and 

 isatis-tinctoria or pastel-woad, The latter was found to yield 

 the greatest quantity of coloring matter — could be cultivated all 

 over France — required less trouble and expense in the culture 

 and preparation than any other plant, and dyed as beautifulj 

 deep, and as permanent a eolor as the best India indigo. 



Joel Barlow, then minister of the United States at Paris, waf 

 deeply impressed with the importance of the cultivation of woad 

 to us, and therefore transmitted these publications to one of hi* 

 friends in Connecticut, who loaned them to General Dearborn^ 

 who translated them. 



General Dearborn presented a copy of his treatise on woad to 

 H. Meigs, who gave it to the Institute. The General has planted 

 about one hundred of the seeds in drills, and in the second year 

 gathered three bushels of the seeds from the plants. The plants 

 were not injured in the least by remaining in the ground through 

 the winter. They started early in spring, and their seed-stalkg 

 were grown many inches before grass had even sprouted. 



At the meeting of the New- York Historical Society, on the 

 13th of January, instant, W. E. A. Hopkins, Consul of the Uai- 



