180 KERMES, OR THE SCARLET GRAIN OF COMMERCE. 



mine. The species of oak on which the kermes insect is found abounds in 

 Algeria, principally in the provinces of Algiers and Oran ; but neither the 

 tree nor the insect are an object of any careful attention. The Arabs, how- 

 ever, collect the insect in June, and the price at which they dispose of it has 

 ranged of late years from five to ten francs the kilogramme. The exports 

 of kermes from Algiers are about 2,000 kilogrammes annually, which, at 

 the official price of nine francs per kilogramme, represents a total value of 

 18,000 francs ; but the greater part of the production is used in the pro- 

 vince to dye stuffs red instead of cochineal. That shipped is principally 

 in demand for colouring cosmetics, distilled waters, and pharmaceutical 

 preparations. Trance imports annually about 3,000 kilogrammes of kermes. 

 Coccus polonicus makes similar nests for its eggs on the roots of Poly- 

 gonum cocciferum, Schleanthus perennis, and other plants, in sandy soils in 

 that country and the Ukraine. This species has the same properties as the 

 preceding ; one pound of it, according to Wolfe, being capable of dyeing ten 

 pounds of wool ; but Hermstadt could not obtain a fine colour, although 

 he employed five times as much of it as of cochineal. The colour does 

 not take well on silk. The Turks, Armenians, and Cossacks, dye with 

 kermes their morocco leather and cloth, as well as the manes and tails of 

 their horses, and the females the nails of their fingers. 



The kermes called Coccus fragaricel is found principally in Siberia upon 

 the root of the common strawberry. The Coccus uva-ursi is twice the size 

 of the Polish kermes, and dyes with alum a fine red. It occurs in Russia. 

 Kermes is found not only upon the Lycopodium complanatum, in the 

 Ukraine, but upon a great many other plants. 



Good kermes is plump, of a deep, red colour, of an agreeable smell, and 

 a rough and pungent taste. Its colouring matter is soluble in water and 

 alcohol ; it becomes yellowish or brownish with acids, and violet or crim- 

 son with alkalies. Sulphate of iron blackens it. With alum it dyes a 

 blood-red ; with copperas and tartar, a lively grey ; with sulphate of 

 c.opper and tartar, an olive green ; with tartar and salt of tin, a lively cin- 

 namon yellow ; with more alum and tartar, a lilac ; with sulphate of zinc 

 and tartar, a violet. Scarlet and crimson, dyed with kermes, were called 

 grain colours, and they are reckoned to be more durable than those of 

 cochineal. Hellot says, that previous to dyeing in the kermes bath, he 

 threw a handful of wool into it, in order to extract a blackish matter, 

 which would have tarnished the colour. 



Black Varnish — A fine black varnish, from the fruit of HoUgama 

 longifolia, is imported into Cachar from Munnipore, as is another made 

 from Sevuvium Anacardium (marking nut), and a remarkable black pigment 

 resembling that from MelanorJicea usitatissima, which is white when fresh, 

 and requires to be kept under water. This turns of a beautiful black colour 

 when applied to a surface, owing, according to Sir D. Brewster, to the fresh 

 varnish consisting of a series of congeries of minute organised particles, 

 which disperse the rays of light in all directions ; the organic structure is 

 destroyed when the varnish dries, and the rays of light are consequently 

 transmitted — ' Hooker's Himalayan Journals.' 



