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As these forests remain unexplored, many of the trees are un-^ 

 known, and consequently the qualities of their barks. However, 

 there are some used by the inhabitants in dyeing yellow ; and I was 

 informed some yielded a black colour that could not be washed out. 

 There is a variety which serves for curing skins, or tanning, some of 

 which give the hide a red colour, others leave it almost white : but 

 this art is so little known, and the people are so averse to employ- 

 ments of this sort, that it has hitherto made little progress. 



Gum tragacanth is in great plenty, and of a very good quality. 

 There are immense quantities of aromatic shrubs ; and I found in 

 many places upon the bark of trees, and more particularly upon old 

 wood, a lichen, which yielded to water a most beautiful crimson 

 colour*. Jointed canes grow spontaneously, frequently above thirty 

 feet long, and in many places form arcades over the road : these 

 plants always indicate the soil to be very fertile. 



Ferns grow so large, as almost to lose their characteristic : I have 

 frequently seen them twelve feet high. These and other succulent 

 plants, when reduced to ashes, serve to make soap, of which almost 



* A part of the lichen which I brought home with me I presented to a gentleman who 

 was fond of cliemical experiments : he obtained from the small quantity of three grains as 

 much colouring matter as imparted to an ounce of fluid a deep purple, sufficiently strong for 

 every purpose of dyeing. 



The following are the results of some experiments which he did me the favour to make : 



White sewing-silk, put into an alcoholic solution only once, received a fine strong purple. 



Part of a skein of the same material was put into a solution of potash, which produced a 

 purple deeper in hue than the former. 



Cotton thread and worsted yarn, immersed only once in the same solution, produced very 

 nearly the same colours. 



The part of a skein of silk dyed in the alcoholic solution was immersed in a solution of 

 muriate of tin, which produced a beautiful lilac, approaching to dove-coloured blue. The 

 same substance dyed in a solution of potash, and immersed in a solution of muriate of tin, 

 became a few shades darker, and rather more of a pink hue. These are not unfavourable 

 results from a quantity so minute ; and I feel confident that this substance may be rendered 

 a very valuable article of trade. 



