436 DR ANDERSON ON THE COLOURING MATTER 
operations on a larger scale than is either convenient or customary in a chemical 
laboratory. 
I have experienced this difficulty to a considerable extent in the investigation 
of the colouring matter to be treated of in the following communication, which 
has been somewhat restricted by the limited quantity of the substance at my dis- 
posal. I do not, therefore, present it to the Society as completely exhausting the 
subject, which I still leave open for further researches, but principally because the 
colouring matter in question differs in certain remarkable points from any hitherto 
described, and constitutes the type of an entirely new class, the existence of which 
is likely to throw light on some obscure points of Technical Chemistry. 
The subject of these experiments was imported into Glasgow, some time since, 
under the name of Sooranjee, with the intention of introducing it as a substitute 
for madder in the art of dyeing. For this purpose it was, on its arrival, submit- 
ted for trial to some of the most experienced and skilful calico-printers in Glas- 
gow, all of whom concurred in declaring it not to be a dye at all, and to be totally 
destitute of useful applications. My friend Professor BaLrour happening to hear 
of this circumstance, was so good as to obtain for me a quantity of the root, which 
has enabled me to submit it to a chemical investigation. At the time I received 
the substance, no information could be got with regard to the plant from which 
it was obtained ; but at the request of Dr Batrour, the importers took the trouble 
of writing to their correspondents in Bombay, for the purpose of obtaining speci- 
mens of the plant or its seeds. The result of this application was, that we soon 
received a small packet of seeds, the label of which bore that they were those of 
the sooranjee or soorinjee plant, the Morinda citrifolia of botanists. As this plant 
has been long and familiarly known as yielding one of the most extensively em- 
ployed native Indian dyes, and as no authority was given with the seeds for the 
determination of the species, it was considered desirable to substantiate it by 
growing them, and examining the plant itself. They were accordingly sown, 
both in the Botanic Garden, and in the garden of Professor Syme at Milbank; 
unfortunately, however, not a single seed germinated, and we were compelled to 
content ourselves with the less satisfactory process of determining the plant by 
the characters of the seed itself. By a comparison with the plates of Garrner’s* 
work, they are found to agree very closely with his figures of the seeds of the 
Morinda citrifolia, and certainly belong to a species of the genus. Of this genus 
six or seven species are known to produce dyes,t but of these two only are im- 
portant, the 17. citrifolia of Linnasus, and the I. tinctoria of Roxpureu, both 
of which are extensively cultivated in various parts of India, for the sake of 
* De Fructibus et Seminibus Plantarum, vol. i., p. 144, 
In addition to those above mentioned, colouring matters are contained in Morinda multifida, 
5 
angustifolia, chachuca, and umbellata, 
ra 
