It was used as early as 1 749, but even then Peter Kalm * expressed regret 

 that no method had been found to fix the color on woolen and linen cloth 

 (1 772, vol. 1, p. 153). Many of the families who own old handwoven coverlets 

 tell the story of grandmother gathering pokeberries and extracting their 

 juice to dye coverlet wool deep jewel-toned reds. This is a rather unlikely 

 possibility, unless our home-dyeing ancestors possessed some well-guarded 

 secret methods of fixing the dye. 



Kermes and mungeet (or munjeet) are two other red dyestuffs worthy 

 of passing recognition. These were frequently mentioned but apparently 

 little used by dyers in America. 



Kermes (the genus Kermes) is a red dye of very ancient origin that, like 

 cochineal, was derived from the dried bodies of insects related to cochineal- 

 producing Dactylopius coccus. Its color was durable, but not as bright as 

 cochineal's. The kermes insects fed on a certain type of oak (Quercus coccifera) 

 and were raised in Southern France, Spain, and along other sections of the 

 Mediterranean coast. 



Mungeet {Rubia cordifolia), referred to as "R. munjista" by Bancroft and 

 other 19th-century authors, is related to madder and produces a similar 

 color. It was a very important dye in India for many centuries but only 

 occasionally used in America, since madder could be obtained readily. 



Yellow Dyes 



* FUSTIC {Morus tinctoria or Chlorophora tinctoria) 



Also known as old fustic; yellow wood; dyers' mulberry; mora; bois jaune (Fr.); das 

 Gelbholz (Ger.) 



Thomas Cooper's opinion, expressed in his 1815 publication, was that 

 fustic, although cheap enough to be commonly used, should not be employed 

 in dyeing fine cloths. His contemporary Joseph Swartz agreed that it was 

 a dull color yet in spite of it felt that fustic made a "good standing" dye. 

 No two 1 9th-century dyers agreed exactly on the value of fustic as a dye 

 for woolens, silks, and cottons, yet all included it among their stocks. The 

 dye was used both for yellows and for compound hues made by combining 

 yellow with other colors. It was frequently mentioned in recipes for snuffs, 

 drabs, greens, oranges, and red oranges. 



An English navigation statute of 1661 lists fustic as one of the English 

 colonial products that could be shipped from their place of origin only to 

 other lands under English rule (Bishop, 1866, vol. 1, p. 87). Another 

 indication of its early use here is the inclusion of 230 pounds of fustic among 



^ Peter Kalm, a Swedish natural historian, in his Travels in North America recorded his 

 observations on many dye plants used by colonists in the Middle Atlantic colonies and 

 Southeastern Canada. 



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