ALKANET ROOT. 



391 



around houses for the aroma of its flowers. It blooms all the year 

 round, and forms hedges in some places. The leaves are used to dye 

 the hair and skin, and it is also employed to tinge the nails and the 

 skin of the Indian women, especially those of the Mussulman race ; it 

 is mixed with catechu. Medicinal properties are also attributed to 

 it ; the natives use it in cutaneous affections, in epilepsy and jaundice. 



The Turks and Arabs are very fond of dyeing the manes, tails and 

 hoofs of their white or grey horses of a fine mahogany brown with 

 henna. They also use it for their own braids of hair, a fine natural 

 black being afterwards obtained by a second dyeing with indigo. 



Henna has been known from antiquity, and sought for the perfume 

 of its flowers. These are employed to scent the oils and pomades 

 used to anoint the body and give it suppleness. It was also used for 

 embalming, as the heads of flowers have been found in mummy cases. 

 The ancients prepared with the leaves a powder called Archenda, now 

 known as henna. The females use it to improve their appearance, and 

 to colour their hands, feet and nails, of a rose-orange, a custom 

 formerly very extended, but which is not now so fashionable in the 

 East.* 



Some botanists enumerate two species, L. inermis, and L. spinosa, 

 Avhile others hold that, although the leaves of the former are larger 

 than those of the latter, they are both the same species, in spite of 

 one bearing thorns and the other not. The best henna comes from 

 Mecca, and is brought to Constantinople by returning pilgrims. In 

 general appearance it closely resembles the common privet. It is 

 propagated by cuttings planted in shady situations, and is a fast- 

 growing shrub ; when the shoots reach the length of about 8 feet, they 

 are cut with a sickle and stripped of their leaves, which are dried in 

 the sun and finely powdered in a kind of rude hand-mill. In about 

 two months or so, when a fresh set of shoots have reached the proper 

 size, a second gathering is made, each plant yielding two or even 

 three crops a year. If the plant is cultivated for the sake of the 

 flowers, the shoots are allowed to grow to the length of 5 or 6 feet 

 before they are cut. The fresh flowers, which give out a delicious 

 odour, have been sold in the streets of Alexandria and Cairo from 

 time immemorial. 



Alkanet Eoot. — The dark blood-red root of Anchusa (AlJcanna) 

 tindoria, growing on sandy places around the Mediterranean Sea, 

 enters into commerce to a small extent. It is insoluble in water, but 

 soluble in alcohol, ether, and bisulphuret of carbon. It is not at the 

 present day employed as a dye-stuff, its chief uses being in pharmacy 

 to colour medicines ; in perfumery to colour oils and greases, to stain 

 woods, and to give a tint to the lime-wash used for the walls of 

 private dwellings. 



In China this root is used to bring out the eruption in smallpox 

 and to colour candles. It fetches from 85 to 44 dollars the picul ; in 

 London it sells at 29s. to 81s. the cwt. 



* ' Chemist aud Druggist,' 1876, p, 388. 



