Dyes and 1 ana. 



10 



[July, 1909. 



to contain 27'8 per cent, of tannin and to 

 yield a leather of very good quality. It 

 i9 worth noting that this tree has been 

 introduced recently into German East 

 Africa with a view to the utilisation of 

 its bark for tanning purposes. 



At the end of the year a sample of divi- 

 divi pods from the Gold Coast aud 

 samples of mangrove bark from Portu- 

 guese East Africa were still under 

 investigation. 



ANNATTO. 



(Prom the Agricultural Journal of 

 India, Vol. IV., Part I, 

 January, 1909.) 



Annatto is employed as a dye for 

 calico, silk, wool, skins, feathers, ivory 

 and bone and in colouring butter and 

 cheese. It produces a fast colour of 

 both yellow and red tints. The plant 

 (Bixa orellana) is a native of West 

 Indies and other parts of tropical 

 America. 



It is a shrub or small tree of very 

 branching habit of growth and attains 

 a height of 8 to 12 feet. It is a hardy 

 plant and fruits very freely in the 

 plains of India in any ordinary soil and 

 climate, 



The fruit is a capsule which, when ripe, 

 splits into two valves, on the inside of 

 which are attached seeds covered with 

 a thin coating of reddish waxy pulp. 

 This waxy substance contains the 

 colouring matter known as Annatto. 



The dye is extensively used for colour- 

 ing butter and cheese in nearly all 



countries, for which purpose, in India 

 the seeds are ground to a fine powder 

 and soaked in pure olive, sessamum or 

 safflower oil. The extract is then strain- 

 ed through fine muslins. 



The plant is propagated from seed 

 which should be sown in a shaded 

 nursery. When the seedlings are about 

 four months old, at which time they 

 should be 6 to 8 inches high, they should 

 be transplanted about 12 feet apart, if 

 the soil is good. Pits should be dug out 

 to a depth and diameter of 18 inches 

 for each seedling. 



Pair crops may be expected in three or 

 four years, but it takes longer to get a 

 fully established plantation. 



Iu India the plant has been grown 

 chiefly in Government gardens. It is 

 a plant of considerable economic value 

 and should be more widely cultivated. 



The seeds, when ripe, should be ex- 

 tracted from the capsules and dried in 

 the sun. They may then be steeped in 

 very hot water. By stirring, the 

 waxy testa is then washed off from each 

 seed. After some days the whole mass 

 should be strained. The liquid should 

 be allowed to ferment for a week and 

 then the dye matter settles. The clear 

 water should then be poured off, and 

 the dye dried in shallow pans. When 

 the substance is semi-hard, it may be 

 moulded into rolls, wrapped in banana 

 leaves, and then becomes the ordinary 

 Annatto of commerce. 



In Jamaica, Annatto is an important 

 export, almost entirely produced by the 

 peasant class. These exports are increas- 

 ing and go chiefly to the United States. 



FIBRES 



NEW FIBRES FOR PAPER.-III. 

 FIBROUS ANNUALS. 



By William Raitt, Bangalore. 



Although bamboo is likely to take the 

 leading position among new sources of 

 paper-making material, it by no means 

 exhausts the possibilities of our tropical 

 and sub-tropical forests, which teem 

 with fibre-yielding plants of every order 

 and variety. The difficulty is not to 

 find them, but to make a selection of 

 those likely to prove profitable in use. 

 It is not necessary here to enter into 

 details of the methods used, and princi- 

 ples underlying the process of elimination 

 of the unfit. Suffice it to say that out 



of the many hundreds of fibre-yielding 

 species, ouly those of the order 

 Gramineai are suitable for modern paper- 

 making, and of these comparatively few 

 fulfil all the necessary requirements. 

 It is desirable to be explicit on this 

 point, in order to avoid the disappoint- 

 ment which is certain to result from 

 attempts to exploit plants, merely 

 because they have been proved to 

 contain fibre. 



It is, above all things, essential that 

 the plant is iu sufficient abundance, in 

 any given locality, and sufficiently 

 gregarious in habit, to bring the cost of 

 collection- down to a minimum. The 

 importance of this will be fully realised, 

 when it is remembered that all costs 



