166 



GREEN INDIGO. 



Chap. VIII. 



I purpose submitting to the Academy a full account of 

 tliis new dye as soon as I am enabled to make a more 

 detailed and satisfactory examination of it.* 



This matter attracted a good deal of notice 

 both in France and in England, and the officials 

 of both countries stationed in China were written 

 to by their respective governments and desired to 

 get what information they could upon it. But in 

 China it is a difficult matter to obtain correct 

 information upon anything which, does not come 

 directly under one's eye ; and if the correspond- 

 ence upon this subject was published, it would, no 

 doubt, exhibit as many amusing blunders as used 

 to be made about the Chinese rice-paper plant in 

 former days. By some the flowers of the Whi-mei 

 {Sophora japonica) were sent home as the " green 

 indigo ;" but this plant yields a yellow dye, and, 

 even when mixed with blue to make a green, the 

 green is not that kind noticed by the French 

 manufacturers. 



From an extensive knowledge of the produc- 

 tions of China, gained during several years of 

 travel, I was not so easily imposed upon as others, 

 but notwithstanding this advantage it was some 

 time before I could be sure that I was " upon the 

 right scent." At last I remembered having seen 

 a peculiar kind of dye cultivated largely some 

 miles to the westward of Hang-chow-foo, and I 

 determined to visit that part of the country again, 



* Translated from the ' Comptes Rendus de I'Academie des Sciences.' 

 Seance de Lundi, 18 October, 1852. 



