selves to twigs of trees of the genus Ficus on which they reproduced rapidly. 

 After the insect bodies had formed a thick gummy red coating on the 

 twigs, the twigs were broken off and sun-dried to kill the insects. Until 

 about 1810 lac could not be purchased in any other form. It was a laborious 

 task to grind the sticks and pound them into a powder, put the powder 

 into water to dissolve the coloring niatter, and then dispose of the remainder 

 of the material (90 percent of the whole). An addition of alum precipitated 

 the dyestuff that could then be filtered out and dried. 



Before 1810 a cake form of lac came on the market (Bancroft, 1814, vol. 2, 

 p. 15), however, the quality of the cakes proved so erratic that dyers 

 were discouraged from using them, usually preferring to process the dye 

 themsel\-es. 



The scarlet, crimson, and orange shades dyed with lac were not as 

 brilliant as those produced by cochineal; therefore, brilliant cochineal 

 was often combined with durable lac to make a \'ery attracti\'e, permanent 

 dye, with the added advantage of being considerably less expensive than 

 cochineal alone. 



SAFFLOWER {Carthamus tinctorius) 



Also known as carthamus; bastard saffron; carthame (Fr.); der Saflor (Ger.) 



The safflower plant, a native of Egypt and some parts of India, was 

 cultivated in Europe for the clear pinkish-red colors it imparted to cottons 

 and silks. Although probably used much more in Europe than in the 

 United States, safflower is mentioned in various 19th-century dye manuals. 

 Professional dyers acquainted with its attractive colors may have applied 

 it here. Unfortunately the clear reds extracted from safflower were not 

 long-lasting due to its sensitivity to acids, alkalis, and light. These latter 

 qualities greatly limited its usefulness. 



The flower head of this annual of the thistle family contains two coloring 

 matters; water-soluble yellow that is unsatisfactory for dyeing and the 

 alkali-soluble reddish dye. To extract the red dye the flower heads were 

 first placed in a sack, crushed and washed in a stream of cold water until 

 all soluble yellow color was removed. Then the reddish dye was extracted 

 from the remaining mass of safflower heads by placing them in a weak 

 alkali solution into which the cloth was also immersed. 



The most important application of this dye was in coloring cotton tapes 

 used to tie together legal documents — the source of the original "red tape" 

 so familiar to bureaucrats. 



POKEBERRT {Phytolacca decandra) 



The dye extracted from pokeberries seems to have been used a great 

 deal by home dyers; however, comments by professional dyers on the dye 

 source always mentioned its short-lived color. 



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