PREPARATION OF WOAD AT PARSON DROVE. 
145 
“ spend ” more and cover a greater surface of cloth. Guaranteed 
woaded cloth is still produced by many Yorkshire cloth merchants. 
It is largely used for fixing the dye in army cloths, that used for 
railway officials, and the constabulary, the principal markets 
being Leeds, Huddersfield, and other Yorkshire towns, Devonshire 
and Scotland ; it is also exported to India and America. 
Woad ( Imtis tindoriu) is almost the only plant growing in 
temperate regions which produces a dye similar to indigo : it is 
one of several Cruciferous and Leguminous plants which contain 
a blue pigment, all of which colouring matters are developed by 
oxidation and fermentation, and all most probably have exactly 
the same natural formula as indigo. The colour in these indigo- 
bearing plants exists as a white substance, soluble in water : this on 
exposure to the air absorbs oxygen and is converted into indigotin, 
which is commercial indigo and is quite insoluble in water. 
The plant is a biennial, growing in a natural state four or five 
feet high. The annual plant which alone is used for producing 
Woad, seldom exceeds twelve inches, though under favourable cir- 
cumstances it may reach eighteen inches. It bears a striking 
resemblance to several other of the Crucifene. When mature in 
its first year the leaf is rather long and narrow, those nearest the 
crown being almost sessile ; the outer leaves, which are stalked, are 
ready for picking when they commence to droop and the glossy- 
green colour gives place to a yellow tinge ; the flower-head is a 
loose panicle of yellow blooms, a patch of Woad in flower looking 
very like Mustard. Sufficient of the annual plants are allowed to 
run to seed to produce fruit for future crops. The panicles are 
cut before the fruit is ripe and spread out in the sun to dry : the} 7 
require to be just in the right condition, since if the fruit is too 
ripe the valves are liable to open and shed the seed. The fruit is 
a flat pod, shading from yellow to purple, containing one seed ; 
this is not separated, the fruit being sown whole. The natural 
habitat of Woad is doubtful, it is most probably native to south- 
eastern Europe, whence it has spread by cultivation north and 
west and into Asia ; though well known to the Gauls and Britons 
in the time of Caesar, it is not indigenous to this country. 
Hungary produces considerable quantities, used in the Buda Pesth 
cotton mills and elsewhere ; it is also cultivated in Germany, 
France, and Italy, the plants in the two latter countries yielding 
l 2 
