142 
DR. C. B. PLOWRIGHT ON WOAD AS A BLUE DYE. 
* De Natura Stirpium,’ 1536, where the following passage occurs: — 
“Viridem herbam trusatilibus molis premunt, ut herbaceam 
saniem excludant : dein abacto liquore digerut in magnos globos, 
quos tabulatis in cinerem computrescere sinunt, pastellum plerisque 
locis ab effigie pastellorum in quam glomerantur, nominantes. 
IIos continis infectoriae coquunt officinae, et laneos pannos ac vellera 
demergunt ut coeruleum ebibant colorem. Coeruleum illam spumam 
innatantem quam igni conferuescentes eructant cortine, indum 
nostri vocant infectores hanc ad pictorum usus siccant.” 
That is to say, “They crush the green plant in mills, so as to 
expel the vegetable juices, then when the moisture has been removed 
they make the Woad up into large balls, and these they allow to lie 
on the floor and decay till they fall into ashes (dust). In many 
places they call Woad, ‘ pastel,’ from the loaf-like shape into which 
the Woad balls are made up. They heat (the dust of) these balls 
in vats, in dyers’ shops, and dip woollen cloths and skins therein, 
that they may absorb the blue colour. The blue scum floating on 
the surface, which the vats throw up when warming on the fire, 
our dyers call indigo : this they dry for the use of painters.” 
In 1555 Crolach* * * § published his small book on Woad and its 
culture and preparation, from which it appears that Thuringia, one 
of the great Woad producing districts of Europe, was already 
beginning to feel the effect of the introduction of indigo into 
Western Europe by the Cape route. A century later this was 
more pronounced, judging from what Wedeliusf says. His account 
of the Woad industry is very good ; so much so that Ray,;}: the 
first professor of botany at Cambridge, copies it almost verbatim 
with due acknowledgment, which in its turn was copied and 
translated by the author of the English Edition of Tournefort’s 
Herbal.§ The latter tells us, “the ground, which is plow’d in 
Autumn, must be left all Winter to be soak’d by the rain, till 
* * Crolachius H. ‘ Isatis herba de oultura Herbse Isatidis quam guadum 
vulgo vocant.’ 12mo. Tiguri, 1555. 
f Wedelius Geo. W. ‘De sale volatile plantarum.’ 12mo. Jena, 1676, 
captin VII. and VIII. 
X Ray John. ‘ Historia Plantarum,’ fo. 1686, vol. i. p. 843. 
§ Tournefort. ‘ The Complete Herbal or Botanical Institutions of 
Mr. Tournefort.’ 4to. London, 1719, vol. i. p. 392 — 395. 
