63. A note on I^npfftiens Balsaniina^ Linn.^ as a 



dye -plant. 



By L H. Bdrkill. 



The distribution of this Balsam seems to be very wide- 

 Its home is in the north-western Himalaya, and it is found wild 

 all down the Western Ghafs. It may be seen in villajre gardens 

 in many parts of Inciiajandit appenrs to be qni^e comtnonly sown 

 in the clearings amontr the hills south of the Brahmaputra and 

 down to Arakan, So much regarding its distribution : now 

 regarding its use as a dye, 



Stewart in liis " Panjab Plants " (Lahore. 1869), p. 36, h»s 

 the following sentence : " Madden states that Impatiens Balsam- 

 ina flowers (?) are in Gurhwal used for a dye, whence it is 

 called miijiti. " Sir Georee Watt in his "Economic Products 

 of India exhibited in the Calcutta International Exhibition 1883- 

 1884 " (Calcutta, 1883), vol. i, pt. 2. p. 33, remarked that the use 

 required confirmation. In the " Dictionary of Economic Pro- 

 ducts! " (article Impatiens BalsaTntna, para. I. 40), he quotes 

 Madden and adds that he had received from the Jaintea hills 

 specimens stated to be used by the inliabitants for dyeing red, the 

 leaves for that purpose being bruised together with some sub- 

 stance called metchhi lanqa. That the leaves should be used 



seems improbable. Duncan (Monograph on Dyes and Dyeing in 

 Assam, Shillong, 1896, p. 2H) quotes Watt and remarks that he 

 had been unable to secure further information from the Jaintea 

 hills on this use, and that the plant tlumgh probably found in 

 gardens all over the district, appeared not to be used as a dye^ 

 anywhere imt in the Jaintea hills. 



The foUo-sving gives a use for the flowers, which one man 

 might call dyeing and another not; and therein it suggests an 

 explanation for the measure of contradiction that there is in the 

 statements of the Dictionary of Economic Products and Duncan's 

 monograph. I pubb'sh it hoping that some one may be inter- 

 ested in following the matter up. 



When in January last I found Impatiens Balsamina on the 

 hill clearings of Chins on the Pi-cboung, at the southern border 

 of the district of Northern Arakan, and again on tlie hill 

 clearings of Chaungthas,^ high up the Kalapanzin river, in the 

 district o£ Akyab, I began to ask questions about it; and I was 

 told that the Changthus (women of the Chaungthas) some- 



1 Descendants of Talaings taken prisoners by the Arakftnese wlio planted 

 them in coloiiiea as wardens of their north**rn marchna. ForcB of circnm- 

 stance* has driven the Channi^tlias to copy the way ut cnliivAtion of the- 

 China. The word Chaungtha meana villager of the hill valleys. 



