202 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
The madder plant was formerly grown to a large extent in 
many countries, and in France 1 large tracts of land were given 
up to its cultivation. “Madder 2 owes its importance to the 
beauty and fastness of the tints it yields, and to the fact that by 
a variation of the mordant used, it produces rose pink, black, 
violet, lilac, and puce colors.” The character of the soil where 
the madder grows affects the color of the dye. The roots 
grown in a rich clay soil exhibit a rose-pink color; under other 
conditions, a deep red coloration. 
Alizarin, the chief coloring-matter of madder, is now pro¬ 
duced artificially from coal tar in large quantities, though the 
madder is especially in request for woolen dyeing. This 
plant, which yielded such large revenues to the growers, is 
replaced by a cheaper manufactured product. Very likely 
we should not have discovered the synthesis of its valuable 
dye, if our attention had not first been directed to it in the 
plant. 
When it is remembered that coal tar is undoubtedly of vege¬ 
table origin, the many brilliant dyes derived from this source 
are only evidences of what plant chemistry could have found 
in the carboniferous ages. 
The folio-wing statistics show: — 
The amount 3 of imported madder: 
Pounds. 
Value. 
1884... 
---- 253,385 
$13,521.00 
Ground or prepared madder: 
Pounds. 
Value. 
1884. 
....1,458,313 
$111,456.00 
1885. 
....1,211,370 
80,628.00 
The natural or artificial alizarin: 
Pounds. 
Value. 
1884. 
$296,123.00 
1885. 
404,002.00 
1 Tropical Agriculture , by P. L. Simmonds. London, 1877, p. 369. 
2 Hand-Book of Dyeing and Calico Printing, by W. Crookes. London, 1874, 
p. 228. 
3 Bureau of Statistics, 1885. 
