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DR. C. B. PLOWRIGHT ON BRITISH DYE PLANTS. 
XIX. 
ON THE TINCTORIAL PROPERTIES OF OUR 
BRITISH DYE PLANTS. 
By C. B. Plowright, M.D. 
Read 25th March, 1902. 
The use of native plants for tinctorial purposes in Northern Europe 
was at one time considerable, for the sparse population resided 
in places far removed from the great centres of civilization. The 
impetus which the writings of Linnaeus gave to the study of botany 
during the eighteenth century, was felt not only in Scandinavia 
hut more or less all over the world. Botanists were induced to 
record their observations on all matters connected with plant-life, 
and especially the economic points of interest attached to plants. 
Naturally their uses for dyeing purposes were observed and com- 
mented upon. Lists of the dye plants of Iceland and Sweden 
were published by Svenonius, Ullgren and -Tbrltn-, the gist of 
which found its way into the earlier editions of Withering’s British 
Plants, together with the observations on the same subject by 
Pennant, Liglitfoot, and Rutty, in our own country. The fact, too, 
that some of these plants are still used in the Highlands of Scotland 
and in some parts of Ireland, induced me to undertake a series of 
experiments, in which the properties of each species have been 
practically put to the test upon skeins of white wool. Each of 
these skeins has been divided, one series has been given to the 
Royal Herbarium at Ivew, another to the Dublin Herbarium, 
a third to the City of Glasgow Technical School, while a fourth is 
exhibited to the members of the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists’ 
Society to-night. 
