362 SCIENTIFIC NOTES. 
and from a Kashmir grass called wnffangil. Blacks and a light-brown 
are got from iron filings and wild pomegranate skins; reds from ker- 
mes, logwood, and a native wood called lin. A drab is obtained from 
walnut-skins, and the colour extracted from English green baize is em- 
ployed to get their finest greens and a light blue. He elsewhere notes 
that the root of a plant called kritz is used in dyeing. The following 
constitutes the information as to dyes I picked up in Kashmir, and I 
have no doubt but that like Vigne's it may contain some errors : — 
The blues for both silk and woollen are obtained from indigo and 
lajward (lapis lazuli). The latter is largely imported into Kashmir, and 
thence partly into the Punjab and Hindustan, from Tibet or beyond 
it. Purple is got from the application of kirm (cochineal), after lapis 
lazuli. Vigne's Punjab flower, which gives a yellow, isgul kesar (literally 
saffron flower), which is obtained from the dhdk or pcdds, Butea frondosa, 
which grows much more abundantly in many parts of Hindustan than 
in the Punjab (except in one or two districts in the eastern extremity of 
the latter). The rind of the fruit of the pomegranate, which is not 
uncommon wild in and near Kashmir, with the liquor of iron ash, is used 
for black. Wool is dyed red by means of lakh (seed-lac produced in 
many parts of India), and silk by cochineal. A non-durable red is got 
from bakam, the wood of, I think, Ccemlpinia Sappan, from Southern 
India, which probably constitutes both the logwood and the lin of Vigne. 
At all events, I could discern no native dyewood known by the latter 
name, and do not think I could have missed it had it existed. Drab is 
obtained from walnut skins without any mordant or preparation, but 
with the addition of a little black if necessary. As to green, I heard 
nothing of the use of green baize, but the only source of this colour was 
stated to be indigo after wotidngil. This is the name of one or several 
species of Carpesium common in parts of Kashmir and its neighbour- 
hood. For silk its root, and for woollen its leaves, are employed to give 
a yellow in the preparation of green. It was stated that for some 
colours a mordant is used of first sajjl (impure carbonate of potash), and 
then phit karl (alum), but I did not get details as to the use of these. 
Kriss is the name in Kashmir and to the westward of Dioscorea deltoidea, 
a plant common in many parts of the Western Himalaya. So far as I 
could learn, its root (a coarse yam, which is eaten by the people in 
places) is only used in washing the wool, &c, preparatory to dyeing. 
It would appear that at least one-half of the materials above enumerated, 
are derived entirely or chiefly from British territory (the rest being in- 
digenous in Kashmir and brought from beyond it). So that if at any 
time it should be considered advisable to shut up the chief trade of the 
country — a very unlikely contingency — we could do so by stopping the 
supply of dyes, altogether irrespective of the power of closing the 
chief exits for the manufactured article. 
L. L. Stewart, M.D., 
Officiating Conservator of Forests, Punjab. 
