INDIGO. 231 



quickly carried to the factory, allowing no time for the 

 plants to flag and become heated, as the slightest degree of 

 fermentation destroys the indigo. 



These bundles are placed in a vat and tightly pressed 

 down by superincumbent weights. Clean water is then ad- 

 mitted, sufficient to cover the whole. After steeping from 

 nine to twelve hours, the liquid, which has acquired a yellow 

 colour, is drawn off by removing a plug from the bottom of 

 the vat. This liquid is received into another vat, where it 

 is kept actively stirred and beaten about with bamboos until 

 a curious granulation takes place; when this has become 

 complete, the granulations settle and the mother-liquor is 

 drawn off. The blue precipitate is then washed with water, 

 and submitted to heat until it appears to effervesce, or 

 ferment, as the planters term it. It is then placed in 

 frames, and submitted to extreme pressure, after which it is 

 cut into cakes about two inches square, dried, and packed 

 into boxes for exportation. 



The Indigo plant is a shrub from two to three feet high, 

 with pinnate leaves, consisting of from four to seven pairs 

 of leaflets, which are of an obovate form (that is, oval, with 

 the broadest part at the top). The leaves are of a dull 

 bluish-green colour on the upper surface, and slightly pu- 



