DYEING AND CALICO PRINTING. 305 



Drmy, in his " Useful Plants of India," (Madras, 1858,) have also pub- 

 lished these and similar details, so that there is nothing very new in the 

 accounts put forth. The oil from the leaves is said to be useful in 

 convulsions, palsy, &c. In Barbados the plant is known as the horse 

 nicker or chick stone. Ornaments made of the seeds are common in 

 most museums. We have baskets, bracelets, rosaries, &c, formed of the 

 Bonduc nuts. There is no doubt it would readily grow in Algeria, and 

 probably in the South of Europe and the Mediterranean Islands. It is 

 often used as a fence plant in the West Indies, the curved thorns on 

 the branches serving to keep off trespassers. 



The Bunduc nuts appear to be used in India in combination with the 

 Cheretta {Agatha chirayta,) all the parts of which plant are extremely 

 bitter. P. L. S. 



ON DYEING AND CALICO PRINTING. 



BY DR. F. GRACE CALVERT, F.E.S.* 



To give a comprehensive view of the present state of the arts of 

 dyeing and calico printing, it will be more convenient to divide the sub- 

 ject under two general heads. 



I. Dyeing. — I shall commence my observations on dyeing by referring 

 especially to the remarkable and beautiful colours derived from coal-tar, 

 the introduction of which into this art may be said to constitute the 

 chief distinction, as far as dyeing is concerned, between the present and 

 former Exhibition — creating, in fact, a new era in the tinctorial art. As 

 it is intended that this report should comprise, besides a description of the 

 distinctive excellence of the goods exhibited, some useful information 

 to the public respecting the means by which the results have been ob- 

 tained, I shall detail some of the steps which preceded the discovery of 

 these beautiful colours, and show how they have been successfully 

 adapted to the art of dyeing. I may, en passant, state the interesting 

 fact that a substance which was originally, and so recently as 1826, a 

 purely scientific product, has become, by a series of discoveries, one of 

 the most valuable of dye-stuffs. Thus in 1825, Faraday obtained for 

 the first time benzine from coal gas. In 1826, Unverdorben dis- 

 covered a substance which was ultimately named aniline by Fritsche 

 and subsequently found by Dr. A. W. Hofmann to be a product of coal 

 tar ; and further by the researches of eminent chemists, the benzine of 

 Faraday has become the aniline of Hofmann. To effect this, the fol- 



* From the Jury Reports, 



