100 EXPLOITATION OF PLANTS 
of vegetable origin. Pliny mentions Tyrian purple 
(an animal dye), scarlet (probably madder), and yellow 
as highly esteemed dyes and very ancient. 
The best collection of coloured materials, both of 
silk and linen, found by Prof. Flinders Petrie, date from 
the relatively modern Roman occupation of Egypt, 
A.D. 300-500. The colours used were the soluble yellow 
from safflower, several madder colours and indigo, and, 
in spite of being over 1500 years old, they are still quite 
bright and clear (see Schunk, 1892). 
In each of the European countries the dyeing in- 
dustry was at first dependent upon indigenous plants, 
which were often extensively cultivated to supply it. 
An interesting list of indigenous English dye plants, 
comprising some ninety species, is given in Mairet, 
1916 (p. 38-44), but most of them give such a poor 
yield, or are so difficult of collection in quantity, that 
they have now no economic importance. 
In the sixteenth century several tropical dye plants 
were introduced, giving a larger and purer yield of the 
same colouring matters. In spite of stringent prohibi- 
tions and heavy penalties against dyers using these 
“ pernicious drugs,” logwood from South America and 
indigo from India quickly supplanted home-grown 
products, and were followed by numerous other dye 
plants, especially from the tropics. 
This influx of new foreign dye plants continued until 
the middle of last century. Then in 1858 Perkin pre- 
pared mauveine, the first of a long series of synthetic, 
dyes produced’ from coal tar. Not, only were many 
hundreds of new colours evolved, but two of the most 
important vegetable dyes were successfully synthesised, 
