Miscellanies. 413 



tion of the orbits of revolving double stars, inserted in the 5th vol. 

 of the Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society ; the other to 

 Professor Decandolle, for his investigations in Vegetable Physiology 

 as detailed in his vi'ork entitled Physiologie Vegetale. 

 I have the honor to be Sir, your most Obt. Servt. 



Charles Konig, For. Sec. R. S. 

 To the Secretary of the American Philos. Soc. Philadelphia. 



3. Pink dye from the flower of the siveet balm. 

 Kead before the Lyceum of Nat. Hist., N. York, July, 1833; byWM. Partridge. 



I beg leave to present to the Lyceum a specimen of pink colored 

 silk made from the flowers of the sweet balm (Monarda didyma). 

 Such colors are usually made with safHower, (Carthamus tinctorius) 

 which is imported from the East Indies and from the Levant; 



In making this pink, I used six grains of balm flowers, and three 

 grains of alum, the silk weighing twelve grains. After drying, it was 

 passed through a weak solution of citric acid in water. In making 

 a similar color from safflower, the flowers are secured in a linen bag, 

 washed and pressed in running water, until all the yellow color is 

 washed away. The flowers have now to be macerated in a solu- 

 tion of soda, sufficiently strong to dissolve the pink coloring matter. 

 The soda has then to be neutralized by citric acid. This complica- 

 ted and expensive process makes safflower pinks more costly than 

 even cochineal colors. 



The sweet balm is a native of North America, grows very freely, 

 and will in three or four seasons, from a few roots, spread itself over 

 a large tract of ground. It keeps blossoming nearly all the summer, 

 and, from the flowers saved from a few heads, would, undoubtedly 

 afford a large crop of dyeing material from a small surface of land. 



The utility of this new coloring matter, is, however, more restrict- 

 ed than that from the carthamus, as the former makes no impres- 

 sion on cotton, whilst the latter operates equally well on both cotton 

 and silk. 



It is highly probable that still more beautiful tints might be obtain- 

 ed from those flowers, by trying them with the various mordants sing- 

 ly and combined ; but I have not time to follow out so tedious and 

 expensive an operation. 



4. Contributions to Geology : by Isaac Lea, 8vo. p. 226. Phil- 

 adelphia, 1833. — The geology of the United States, has indeed 



