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IOWA ACADEMY OP SCIENCE 
collect all the facts in regard to folk-use of such plants even in our own state 
but it is hoped that the lists as given may possess something, at least of 
interest in the history of native economic plants of Iowa. 
The literature relating exclusively to dye-plants is meager, consisting almost 
entirely of isolated references, here and there, in floras. The fact that many 
speciflc names of plants are forms of the Latin adjective Unctorius is evidence 
that dye-principles of certain plants were known to early botanists. Linnaeus 
mentions four such plants only; but in the fifth volume of his Amenitates 
Academicae, he published an article of thirty pages by Engelbert Jorln, on 
Plantae tinctoriae, in which Swedish dye-plants were named. In the fourth 
edition of William Withering’s Botanical Arrangement of British Plants, pub- 
lished in 1801, (first edition 1776) fifty species are named which contain dye- 
principles. The author referred to Lightfoot’s Flora Scotica published originally 
in 1777. Plowright mentions Pennant’s Tours in Scotland (1782) and Rutty’s 
Natural History of the County of Dublin (1772) as containing references to 
native dye plants. 
Mention should be made of the work of Pierre Joseph Buchoz, who, 
during the fifty years subsequent to 1758, wrote more than five hundred treatises 
upon Botanical subjects. These are largely compiled from other sources and 
cover many phases of plant life. 
His Manuel tinctorial, published in 1800, while interesting, cannot be accepted 
as strictly reliable. 
The better known commercial dye plants have been treated more at length in 
various publications, as Simmonds’ Tropical Agriculture, in which eight of the 
most valuable, economically, are discussed. There are many articles in German 
that consider the subject from a chemical point of view but such are not logic- 
ally within the scope of this article. In 1901, Dr. Plowright read an interesting 
paper, before the Royal Horticultural Society of England, upon British Dye 
Plants, in which he stated that in the Highlands and remote parts of Ireland 
native dye plants are still employed by the women in their homes. He names 
sixty such plants and in this paper records the results of a series of experi- 
ments with them covering a period of two years. The paper was farther illus- 
trated by 150 skeins of wool which had been dyed in preparations from these 
plants. Rev. Wilks, Editor of the Horticultural Reports, said that “the effect of 
the various dyes was very distinct and beautiful in the direction of what may 
best be described as high art shades.” 
The bibliography here listed is of the more easily accessible titles, including 
also a few of the older works. No attempt has been made to list any consider- 
able number of publications on tan-plants, the majority of those consulted being 
technical from the point of view of the manufacturer. 
Bfrry. w c. Coloring' matters for food-stuffs and methods for their detection. Cir. 
Bur. Chem. U. S. Dept. Agr. 25 :40. 
Bdankenshtp, J. W. Native economic plants of Montana. Bull. Mon. Agr. Exp. 
Sta. 56 :36. 
Buchoz, P. J. Manuel tinctorial des plantes ou trait§ de toutes les plantes que 
peuvent servir a la teinture et la peinture. Ed. 5. 287. Paris 1800. 
Chesnut. V. K. Plants used bv the Indians of Mendocino Co., Cal. Cont. U. S. 
Nat. Herb. 7:295-408. 
Blount, A. E. Canaigre. Bull. N. M. Agr. Exp. Sta. 14 :37-44. 
CoviLLE. F. V. Notes on plants used by the Klamath Indians of Oregon. Cont. U. S. 
Nat. Herb. 5 :87-108. 
Cook, O. P. and Collins, G. M. Economic plants of Porto Rico. Cont. U. S. Nat. 
Herb. 8:57-269. 
