230 



POPULAE ECONOMIC BOTANY. 



vented by a strong prejudice which existed against it for a 

 considerable time. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth an 

 edict was passed prohibiting the use of this dye, which 

 was called food for the devil, and this edict was not with- 

 drawn until the reign of Charles II. Its use was also 

 prohibited, or restricted, in Saxony and France. The pre- 

 judice against the use of indigo seems to have arisen from 

 the ignorance of the dyers as to the means of fixing the 

 colour, so that the cloths, however beautiful to the eye 

 when new, became disfigured immediately they were wetted. 

 Since however its value became known, its culture, previ- 

 ously confined to its native country, India, has spread into 

 the West Indies, Mexico, Brazil, Egypt, and other suitable 

 places. 



It does not exist as indigo in the plant, but when the 

 plant is subjected to a certain process, the blue colour is 

 educed. The largest quantity is yielded from the plants 

 when in flower, but the finer qualities are produced when 

 the flowering has ceased. The process of separating indigo 

 from the plant was first accurately described by Jean Bap- 

 tiste Labat, a Dominican missionary monk; it is as follows. 



Just before flowering, the plants are cut down and tied 

 into bundles about five feet iu circumference \ these are 



