DYES A^'D COLOEI^'G STUFrS. 



the di'ied carcasses of the tiny cochineal insect, while the produce 

 of another small insect, that which produces the lac dye, is scarcely 

 less valuable. Then there are the gall nnts nsed for dyeing and 

 making black ink. Upwards of £3,000,000 is paid for barks of 

 various kinds for tanners' purposes, about one million for other 

 tanning substances and heavy dye woods, besides about £200,000 

 for various extracts of tannin, such as G-ambier, Cutch, Divi-divi, 

 and Kino. The aggregate value of the dye stuffs and gum it is 

 difficult to estimate. 



The beautiful specimens of materials imported from China, 

 India, Xew Zealand, the Continent, and other countries, and 

 exhibited at the Crystal Palace, proves to us that we have yet 

 much to learn from other nations in the art of fixing colors and 

 obtaining brilliant dyes. The French are much our superiors in 

 dyeing and the production of fast and beautiful colors. Their 

 chemical researches and investigatious are carried out more sys- 

 tematically and effectively than our own. Eussia imports dye- 

 woods and dyestuffs to the value of five millions and a half of 

 silver roubles annually. 



It was well observed by the Jury Keporters at the Grreat Exhi- 

 bition, that " a vast number of new coloring materials have been 

 discovered or made available, and improved modes have been 

 devised of economically applying those already in use ; so that the 

 dyer of the present time employs many substances of the very 

 existence of which his practical predecessors were wholly ignorant. 

 From the increased use of many of the vegetable colors, and from 

 the improved modes of applying the coloring matters, a demand 

 has naturally sprung up for various dye stuffs ; and at the present 

 time, many of the dyeiug materials of distant countries are be- 

 ginning to excite the attention of practical men ; for though they 

 have been acquainted with many of these substances, it is only 

 recently that the progress of the art has rendered their use 

 desirable or even practicable." 



It would be quite impossible, within the limits which I have 

 assigned myself, to make even a bare enumeration of the various 

 plants and trees from which coloring substances and dye stuffs can 

 be obtained, I must, therefore, be content to specify only a few. 



The roots of some species of Lithospermum afford a lac for 

 dyeing and painting. Dried pomegranates are said to be used in 

 Tunis for dyeing yellow ; the rind is also a tanning substance. 



Sir John Franklin tells us that the Crees extract some beautiful 

 colors from several of their native vegetables. They dye a beautiful 

 scarlet with the roots of two species of bed-straw, Galium tinc- 

 torium and horeale. They dye black, with an ink made of elder 

 bark and a little bog-iron ore dried and powdered, and they have 

 various modes of producing yellow. They employ the dried roots 

 of the cowbane {Cicuta virosci), the bruised buds of the Dutch 

 myrtle, and have discovered methods of dyeing with various lichens. 



In the " Comptes Bendus," xxxv., p. 558, there is an account by 

 M. J. Persoz, of a green coloring matter from China, of great 



