TETHADYNAMIA. SILICULOSA. Vella. 753 
VEL'LA.* (Pouch globular, entire, with a prominent, dilated, 
flat style, twice as long as the concave valves. E.) 
long at the same place, but lead with their families a nomadian life, directed by their 
principal, wherever he may engage suitable land. The goodness of Woad depends on 
the luxuriance of the plant, especially on the size and thickness, (or fatness, as it is 
technically termed), of the leaves. E.) “ It is sown about the beginning of March, and 
cropt about the beginning of May following. It is best in quality in a fair and dry 
summer, but most in quantity in a moist one. Then they crop it four or five times ; the 
first crop is best. As soon as cut it is carried to the Woad mill, and ground as small as it 
can be, until it become fit to ball. The balls are laid on hurdles to dry, and when 
perfectly dried, they are ground to fine powder in the mill. Thus ground it is thrown on a 
floor and watered, which operation is called couching. It remains to smoak and heat, 
turned every day, until it be perfectly dry and mouldy, called silvering. It is then weighed 
by the hundred, and bagged, and thus sent for sale to the dyers. The best Woad is worth 
20/. or more per ton,” (and that quantity is considered a moderate produce from an dcre.— 
Three or four gatherings may be expected from each crop, but the first and second are by 
far the most valuable, and the imprudent admixture of the latter gatherings, too often 
deteriorates the finer quality of the former. The price of Woad has declined since the 
general importation of indigo, not merely in England, but in other European countries; 
though it is generally admitted that Woad, under more careful management, would equal 
the colour of that foreign production, (which takes large sums of money out of this 
country), as it does already exceed it in permanency. The improved culture of this staple 
British commodity, might be worthy the encouragement of the Society of Arts—-If the 
general idea be correct, that the aboriginal Britons stained their bodies with the blue 
colour obtained from this plant, we cannot refuse our assent to its claim to be deemed in¬ 
digenous, notwithstanding some authorities have pronounced it merely naturalized. 
e( In times of old, when British nymphs were known 
To love no foreign fashions like their own ; 
When dress was monstrous, and fig-leaves the mode, 
And quality put on no paint but Woad: ” Garth. 
The relative importance of this article must have been nearly equal to what it now is : nor 
does any other plant so aptly claim this distinction, though we are fully aware of the 
difficulty of proving that the following, and other passages, refer solely to it. “ Omnes 
verb se Britanni vitro inficiunt, quod caeruleum efficit colorem ; atque hbc horribiliore sunt 
in pugna adspectu.” Caes. Bel. Gal. lib. v. 10. All the Britons depict themselves with 
(Woad?) which yields a blue colour; and thus is their appearance rendered more terrific 
in battle.—“ Simile plantagini glastum in Gallia vocatur, quo Britan norum conjuges 
nurusque toto corpore oblitae, quibusdam in sacris et nudse incedunt, JEtbiopum colorem 
imitantes.” Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. xxii. c. 1. In France, a plant, somewhat resembling Plan¬ 
tain, is called glastum, ( Woad ?) where with the Britons’ wives, and their sons’ wives, are co¬ 
loured all over, and thus appear naked in some religious ceremonies, looking like Ethiopians. 
—The ancient British word gl&s, or glast, signifying blue or green, glass- coloured, (hence 
Glastonbury, from the verdant district around that noted spot, Glasbampton, &c.) the more 
modern English term glass ; and possibly the Latin glades; are all found expressive of 
something like the same meaning ; and are not less applicable to the colour of the plant 
(Woad) itself, “ Gfa's'ti notte stint folia glutted, ad tingendum utilia,” Ray; than to its dying 
principle: and this has been, with considerable plausibility, attached to Isatis. Bishop Gibson 
says, in Caesar, Vitruvius, Pliny, and other Roman historians, we read of this same plant under 
the name of vitrum, (also yielding a blue colour, ut supra) ; and here again it is remark¬ 
able, we have a word of somewhat similar signification, and possibly a translation on the 
part of Caesar of the ancient British name. Thus may the synonymy of these obscure 
terms be reconciled, if not the application of them to our Woad be incontrovertibly estab¬ 
lished. Vid. Reseda Luteolas —It is cultivated on rather an extensive scale at Kesmark in 
Hungary, and appears equal to the best Spanish Indigo, but the price is as high. Town- 
son’s Travels. E.)—Cows eat it; horses, sheep, and goats refuse it. 
*' (A name adopted by Galen, and latinized from the Celtic, signifying a sort of Cress. E.) 
