42 ALKANET. 
left. The next part of the process is to suffer it to fer- 
ment for four or five days; after which it is mixed, over 
the fire, with a third part of nut-oil (24-1), or some 
other oily fluid, and is thus rendered fit for use. 
Bird-lime has a remarkably adhesive quality, par- 
ticularly to feathers and other dry substances. It is, 
on this account, employed for the smearing of twigs to 
ensnare birds. In its elasticity and inflammable nature 
it has much resemblance to Indian rubber ; and, if any 
means could be adopted to harden it, there is little 
doubt but it might be substituted for that article. 
Holly deserves to be much more extensively culti- 
vated than it is. Some years ago a person who pur- 
chased a holly wood in Yorkshire, sold the bird-lime 
prepared from the bark to a Dutch merchant, for nearly 
the whole sum of his original purchase. 
Among the ancient Romans it was customary to 
send branches of holly, to their friends, with new years' 
gifts, as emblematical of good wishes. We decorate 
our houses and churches with it at Christmas, to give, 
as it has been observed, an air of spring in the depth of 
winter. 
CLASS V. PENTANDRIA. 
MONOGYNIA. 
57. ALKANET is a dyeing drug, the bark of a roet 
which produces a rough plant (Anchusa tinctoria), with downy 
and spear-shaped leaves, and clusters of small purple or 
reddish flowers, the stamens of which are shorter than the 
corolla. 
Though this plant is sometimes cultivated in England, 
by far the greater portion of the alkanet which we use 
is imported either from the Levant, or from the neigh- 
bourhood of Montpelier in France. 
