THE SPINDLE-TREE. 



197 



country watchmakers prefer it to any other kind 

 of wood for the slender spills which they use in 

 cleaning watches. When reduced to charcoal it 

 makes an excellent crayon for artists, being of 

 a strong texture, and making a mark which is 

 easily effaced. Loudon also states that the fruit 

 is sometimes employed by dyers, who derive a 

 yellow dye from the seeds boiled alone, a green 

 dye from the seeds boiled with alum, and a red 

 dye from the seed-vessels. 



A variety of this tree is cultivated, which 

 bears scarlet seeds in a white seed-vessel* Seve- 

 ral foreign species are also cultivated, all of 

 which, as well as the common one, are liable to 

 be entirely stripped of their foliage by the cater- 

 pillars of a moth, which cover the branches with 

 festoons of a web spun by them in the course 

 of their feeding. 



