Chap. VIII. 



GREEN INDIGO. 



167 



and examine the dye more minutely. Here I 

 found fields under cultivation with a kind of 

 Rhamnus apparently. The Chinese farmer called 

 it " Loh-zah," or " Soh-loh-shoo," and showed me 

 samples of the cloth which had been dyed with 

 it. To my delight these samples corresponded 

 exactly with those sent back from France, one 

 of which was in my possession. But he told me 

 that two kinds were necessary — namely, the 

 variety they cultivated in their fields, and one 

 which grew wild on the hills — in order to j)ro- 

 duce the dye in question. The former they called 

 the yellow kind, and the latter the white kind. 

 The dye itself was not extracted by them, they 

 were merely the growers, and therefore I could 

 get no information as to its manufacture. I how- 

 ever secured a good supply of plants and seeds of 

 both kinds, which were afterwards sent to India 

 and England. 



My further inquiries on the subject of the 

 manufacture of the " green indigo " were con- 

 ducted in connexion with Dr. Lockhart and the 

 Eev. J. Edkins, of Shanghae. We found that a 

 considerable portion of this dye was made near a 

 city called Kia-hing-foo, situated a few miles west 

 from Shanghae, and Mr. Edkins procured a bundle 

 of chips there which exhibited the state in which 

 the article is sold in the market. Since I left 

 China I have received the following interesting 

 letter from Dr. Lockhart, which t.hrows much 

 light on the subject. The information was pro- 



