188 
INDIGO. 
There are several other kinds which produce a fecu- 
lum of a similar nature with those we have just 
mentioned ; but none, we believe, are so universally 
cultivated, or produce an equal quantity of this va- 
luable dye. 
The Indigofera anil is the species which is gene- 
rally cultivated in the Antilles and in the other 
parts of America. Jt grows naturally in the East In- 
dies, and is in figure a little, straight, delicate shrub, 
furnished with slender branches, which, spreading, 
form a tuft. It grows to the height of two or three 
feet, sometimes more, especially when it is planted 
in a congenial soil. The main stem is sometimes 
divided near the bottom into several lesser ones, 
and their colour is grayish intermixed with green. 
From the branches'grow a number of leaves situated 
alternately, and composed of three and sometimes 
four pair of pinnae, besides an odd leaflet at the end. 
Like the rest of the leguminous plants, it produces a 
papilionaceous flower, and a podded seed-vessel en- 
closing several seeds. 
The foliage of this kind of indigo exhales a sweet, 
penetrating, but rather flattish smell. The flower- 
stalks spring from the axils of the leaves, and are 
furnished with small reddish-violet flowers, of a 
clear colour, and faint but agreeable smell. The 
seeds, resembling little cylinders, are about a line 
long, and of an obtusely quadrangular figure. 
The vegetable substance obtained from this plant 
under the name of indigo, is of a blue colour, and 
of a hard, brittle, and friable texture ; it is chiefly 
