LOGWOOD. 



201 



which they offer for his imitation. Generally speaking, 

 they are as fugacious as they are brilliant ; and those most 

 dazzling to the eyes are often the most ephemeral. The 

 vegetable products which are used in the process of dyeing, 

 are often totally different in colour themselves, to the tints 

 which they yield under the skilful treatment of the dyer. 

 But much as art has done to improve this important branch 

 of our manufactures, we are still very far from rivalKng the 

 flowers of the field; and if the ^^lily of the valley men- 

 tioned in Scripture is, as is very generally supposed, the 

 Lilium Chalcedonicum, not even the rapid advance of the 

 arts and sciences has yet enabled the sovereigns of the earth 

 to say their vestments can rival those of that lily in beauty 

 and brilHancy. 



Our vegetable dyes are derived from all the parts of 

 plants : thus the roots of some, the wood of many more, the 

 bark, the leaves, the flowers, and the fruit of others. The 

 first we shall notice is the 



Logwood. Hcematoxylon Campechiamm, (Nat. Ord. 

 Leguminos^e.) (Plate XV. fig. 76.) 



The tree producing this dye is a native of the province of 

 Yucatan, in South America, the principal town of which, 

 Campeachy, situated on the river San Francisco, in the Bay 



