40 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



these plants were considered over and done wdth, yet they yielded the 

 greatest amount of indigo. In this instance the whole of the tops of the 

 plants, down to, and including, the crown, were cut off, so that young and 

 unexpanded leaves as well as rapidly growing leaves formed a considerable 

 part of the sample. 



Indigo yielded by ^ Kilogramme of Fkesh Woad Leaves. 



Date of 

 gathering 



Age of leaves 



Xo. of times cropped 



Indigo, in 

 grammes 



Per cent. 



22 November 



28 days 



Twice 



1-500 



•30 



2 December 



30 



Three times 



2-446 



-48 



22 November 



34 „ 



Twice 



2-113 



-42 



)) )) 



66 „ 



Twice 



0-615 



•12 



To return to our ancestors. 



(1) They may have dyed themselves blue by infusing fresh young 

 Woad leaves in hot water, adding pearl ash or wood ashes, and washing 

 themselves with the liquid. 



(2) By substituting an excess of lime-water or by slaking quicklime 

 in the infusion, they might have dyed themselves a green colour. 



(3) By rubbing themselves with the juice of the plant they would 

 have dyed themselves as black as the " wadmen " still dye their hands 

 every autumn when cropping and balling the Woad. 



(4) By infusing the plant, adding a small quantity of lime water, and 

 drying the precipitate they could have obtained nearly pure indigo with 

 which (a) they could have tattooed themselves, or (b) smeared it on their 

 bodies, mixed with oil. 



(5) It is most likely, however, that they obtained woad-indigo and used it 

 for tattooing their bodies from the scum which rises to the top of the vessel 

 in which the process of Woad dyeing is being successfully carried on. 

 This was probably the source from which Pliny's chalk was stained blue, 

 as it was that from which the missal illuminators of mediteval times — 

 the ijictori that Ruellius * speaks of — obtained their beautiful blue pig- 

 ment. The interesting questions of Woad preparation and Woad dyeing 

 must be left to another occasion. 



My thanks are due to many friends for their help, but especially 

 to Mr. Fitzalan Howard, Dr. E. Schunck, Dr. Hans Molisch, Professor 

 Beijerinck, Professor 0. Penzig, Mr. E. H. Biffen, Sir Thomas Wardle, 

 Miss Annie Lorrain Smith, and Miss S. J. V. Dodds, in addition to those 

 previously mentioned. 



* Ruellius, J., De Natwra Stirpium, Paris, 1536, lib. ii. cap. cxv. p. 574. 



