THE YELLOW DYE STUFFS OF CHIXA AND INDIA. 3 



affirm whether it is used both for silk and cotton, or principally for the 

 latter. The roots, which are held in greatest esteem, come from the 

 province of Honan. 



Hoai-hoa. — The flowers of this tree are largely used in China. It is 

 known to botanists as the SopJiora Japonica, Linn., and was first introduced 

 to the notice of Europeans, as a dye stuff, in 1846. Samples were procured 

 and subjected to examination by Dr. Henon, of Lyons, who was the first 

 to discover that this yellow dye stuff consisted of the undeveloped flower 

 buds of the tree we have named. In 1851 Dr. Th. Martius received this 

 substance from Hamburg, under the name of Wai-fa, by whom it was also 

 examined. This tree is said to be abundant both in the north and south of 

 China. It is cultivated between twenty-three and forty degrees north 

 latitude ; but chiefly in the province of Fokien, and in the northerly 

 provinces of Honan and Shantung. Father Cibot states, " The flowers are 

 generally employed ; it is grown everywhere without care, and yields a 

 very fine yellow. When on the point of blowing, they are gathered, 

 separated from the calyx, and dried in the rays of a hot sun ; or, still better, 

 in an iron pan, when they are turned, as if they were to be roasted. They are 

 then moistened with the juice of other flowers, piled in a heap, and strewed 

 with salt. When thoroughly manipulated, they are formed into balls, and 

 set to dry in a northern aspect. Some people, instead of salt, use lime, or 

 content themselves with sprinkling it over their flowers, after reducing it 

 to a fine powder." According to Messrs. Fortune and Hoffmann, the flower 

 furnishes a yellow dye. Dr. Lindley says the seed vessel affords a yellow 

 or orange. Dr. Th. Martius remarks that the mixture of flower-buds 

 and fragments of stems described by him are used to dye a fine yellow 

 the silken stuffs intended for the vestments of the Mandarins. 



The mixture alluded to by Dr. Th. Martius consist of dried flower-buds, 

 with about an equal proportion of little stalks and sticks. The buds are 

 mostly very young, one-eighth to one-fourth of an inch long, oval, and 

 pointed at the peduncular extremity ; they are of a dark greyish green, 

 and almost devoid of taste, imparting to water a fine yellow colour. In 

 1853 Professor Stein, of Dresden, experimented on this dye stuff. A dyer, 

 in Canton, thus describes his process of using Jioai-hoa : " Take boiling 

 water, put in the 7ioai-hoa, and leave it for some time. After a while the 

 colour and the odour are both developed. Pour off; the sediment is of 

 no use. Take this water ; add cold water to reduce its temperature ; add 

 lime water, and dip the cloth in the bath thus prepared. Let the cloth be 

 well shaken, and then rinsed in pure water. After being rinsed, the cloth 

 will be found dyed a fair yellow. A little alum is required to complete the 

 process. Put the cloth, first of all, in some alum water, for twenty-four 

 hours ; then dip, and the process is complete. 



The reporters on this dye, to the Agricultural Society of Lj'ons, state 

 that " the yellow colour is very analogous to that of woad, but it is not so 

 well suited to produce light yellows, as straw coloured, &c, which are poor, 

 and disagreeable to the eye. In orange yellows, as the gold button, this 



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