270 SF assabushit. 
to be regretted, because some good things are occasionally 
lost to our commerce through ignorance of their value. 
Some years since, the “ Mishmee teeta,” a tonic much 
esteemed in India, came under a barbarous name, and 
probably rotted at the docks, for we never heard of its 
meeting a purchaser. Ina similar manner the capsules of 
a kind of Gardenia, in good repute for dyeing silks in 
China was, over and over again, offered for sale, and then 
appeared no more. Then, again, the “Cassareep,” which 
forms the basis of so many sauces in the northern portion 
of South America, could find no purchaser, but was at last 
committed to the bosom of old Father Thames. Those 
who have watched our commercial sales for a few years 
will be able to augment this list considerably; in fact, 
many other like instances are still within our own recol- 
lection, but it is not our present purpose to enumerate the 
cases of past failures whilst recording a new one. 
At the present moment a parcel of “unknown” produce, 
called “Jassabushit,” from Japan, is offered for sale as a 
dye-stuff, but what it is, or what is its value, all seem alike 
ignorant, who look at it, and shake their heads. It is 
doubtful whether chemical dyes have not almost elbowed 
all, except the very best and nearly indispensable dye- 
stuffs, out of the market, and opposed a barrier to the 
introduction of new ones. 
The “ Jassabushit ” has very little to recommend it, not 
even in appearance ; and, although we cannot prophesy of 
its introduction as a permanent trade product, a little more 
definite information respecting it may not be unacceptable. 
The parcel consists of the female catkins, resembling small 
cones, and are almost the counterpart, on an enlarged 
scale, of our own “alder-berries.” They are, indeed, the 
catkins of an alder, but four times the size of those pro- 
duced by the common alder, having a diameter of at least 
an inch, and being from an inch to an inch and a-half in 
length. They are probably the fruit of Alnus japonica 
(Thunb.), which, together with Alnus glutinisa (Willd.), 
and Alnus firma (Zoll,), are common Japanese plants. In 
his “ Flora Japonica,’ Thunberg gives ¥asza as the native 
name of the common alder, but of Yasza-bushit there is no 
mention. His remarks, though brief, inform us of the use 
of alder catkins for dyeing black in Japan. “Coni hujus 
ad nigrum tingendum adhibentur, eumque in finem vul- 
gares exhibentur venales siccati” (Fl. Jap. p. 76). It has 
long been known that alder-berries may be used in dyeing 
