Chapter XXXVII: Section IV (1)

DYES AND COLORING STUFFS, AND TANNING SUBSTANCES.

Of the several classes of materials collected at the Industrial Exhibition in Hyde Park, in 1851, few possessed so much importance in the eyes of the textile and leather manufacturer and chemist as the different products used in the arts and manufactures for coloring and tanning purposes. These were in a great measure lost sight of by the public at large, being scattered about in small quantities in a great number of directions; and, from the minute samples shown, were in many instances overlooked altogether. Besides furnishing some novel and general statistical facts, which may prove interesting, I propose also in this section to draw attention more prominently to some of these products, which are at present little known or appreciated.

Coloring substances for staining and dyeing are obtained indifferently from the animal, mineral, and vegetable kingdoms, but it is of the last alone that I shall have to speak. The importance of a more careful consideration of this subject will be admitted, if we consider how much the prosperity and extent of our cotton, silk, woollen, and leather manufactures depends on a liberal and cheap supply of dyes and tannin, to give beauty and color to the fabrics, and substance and utility to the skins. Even oil colors, for painters' purposes, which do not come within the scope of my remarks, form an item in our yearly exports of the value of £250,000, and when we calculate the large amount of cotton, silk and wool worked up, most of which requires various coloring agents, gums, starches, and mordants;--that nearly 30,000 tons of hides are annually imported, exclusive of those obtained from our now slaughter-houses, besides goat, seal, and other skins--and that the exports of our various manufactures of cotton, linen, silk, wool and leather in 1852, setting aside our home consumption, amounted to nearly fifty millions sterling, we shall be able to form a better estimate of the importance of the various subjects we are about to notice.

Great Britain does not pay less than £600,000 annually for the dried carcasses of the tiny cochineal insect, while the produce of another small insect, that which produces the lac dye, is scarcely less valuable. Then there are the gall nuts used for dyeing and making black ink. Upwards of £3,000,000 is paid for barks of various kinds for tanners' purposes, about one million for other tanning substances and heavy dye woods, besides about £200,000 for various extracts of tannin, such as Gambier, Cutch, Divi-divi, and Kino. The aggregate value of the dye stuffs and gum it is difficult to estimate.

The beautiful specimens of materials imported from China, India, New Zealand, the Continent, and other countries, and exhibited at the Crystal Palace, proves to us that we have yet much to learn from other nations in the art of fixing colors and obtaining brilliant dyes. The French are much our superiors in dyeing and the production of fast and beautiful colors. Their chemical researches and investigations are carried out more systematically and effectively than our own. Russia imports dyewoods and dye-stuffs to the value of five millions and a half of silver roubles annually.

It was well observed by the Jury Reporters at the Great Exhibition, that "a vast number of new coloring materials have been discovered or made available, and improved modes have been devised of economically applying those already in use; so that the dyer of the present time employs many substances of the very existence of which his practical predecessors were wholly ignorant. From the increased use of many of the vegetable colors, and from the improved modes of applying the coloring matters, a demand has naturally sprung up for various dye stuffs; and at the present time, many of the dyeing materials of distant countries are beginning to excite the attention of practical men; for though they have been acquainted with many of these substances, it is only recently that the progress of the art has rendered their use desirable or even practicable."

It would be quite impossible, within the limits which I have assigned myself, to make even a bare enumeration of the various plants and trees from which coloring substances and dye stuffs can be obtained, I must, therefore, be content to specify only a few.

The roots of some species of Lithospermum afford a lac for dyeing and painting. Dried pomegranates are said to be used in Tunis for dyeing yellow; the rind is also a tanning substance.

Sir John Franklin tells us that the Crees extract some beautiful colors from several of their native vegetables. They dye a beautiful scarlet with the roots of two species of bed-straw, _Galium tinctorium_ and _boreale_. They dye black, with an ink made of elder bark and a little bog-iron ore dried and powdered, and they have various modes of producing yellow. They employ the dried roots of the cowbane (_Cicuta virosa_), the bruised buds of the Dutch myrtle, and have discovered methods of dyeing with various lichens.

In the "Comptes Rendus," xxxv., p. 558, there is an account by M.J. Persoz, of a green coloring matter from China, of great stability, from which it appears that the Chinese possess a coloring substance having the appearance of indigo, which communicates a beautiful and permanent sea green color to mordants of alumina and iron, and which is not a preparation of indigo, or any derivative of this dyeing principal. As furnished to M. Persoz by Mr. Forbes, the American consul at Canton, it was in thin plates of a blue color, resembling Japanese indigo, but of a finer grain, differing also from indigo in its composition and chemical properties. On infusing a very small quantity of it in water, this fluid soon acquired a deep blue color with a greenish tinge; upon boiling and immersing a piece of calico on which the mordants of iron and alumina had been printed, it was dyed a sea green color of greater or less intensity according to the strength of the mordant--the portions not coated remaining white.

A berry called _Makleua_ grows on a large forest tree at Bankok, which is used most extensively by the Siamese as a vegetable black dye. It is merely bruised in water, when a fermentation takes place, and the article to be dyed is steeped in the liquid and then spread out in the sun to dry. The berry, when fresh, is of a fine green color, but after being gathered for two or three days it becomes quite black and shrivelled like pepper. It must be used fresh, and whilst its mixture with water produces fermentation. The bark of _Datisca cannabina_ also dyes yellow. It contains a bitter principle, like quassia.

A coloring matter is prepared from the dried fruit of the _Rottlera tinctoria_, by the natives of the East, to dye orange, which is a brilliant and tolerably permanent dye. It is apparently of a resinous nature.

A small quantity of Alkanet root (_Anchusa tinctoria_), is imported from the Levant and the south of France, and is used to color gun stocks, furniture, &c., of a deep red mahogany and rosewood color. It is brought over in packages weighing about two cwt., the price being 40s. or 50s. per cwt.

Turmeric is now imported to the extent of upwards of 800 tons, a portion of this is used in dyeing. The culture and commerce has been already noticed in Section III.

The bark and roots of the berberry are used in the East to dye yellow; the color is best when boiled in ley. Some of the species of Symplocos, as _S. racemosa_, known as lodh about the Himalaya mountains, and _S. tinctoria_, a native of Carolina, are used for dyeing. The scarlet flowers of _Butea frondosa_ (the Dhaktree), and _B. superba_, natives of the Indian jungles, yield a beautiful dye, and furnishing a species of kino (_Pulas kino_), are also used for tanning. _Althea rosea_, the parent of the many beautiful varieties of hollyhock, a native of China, yields a blue coloring matter equal to indigo. Indigo of an excellent quality has been obtained in the East from a twining plant, _Gymnema tingens_ or _Asclepias tingens_.

The juice of the unripe fruit of _Rhamnus infectorius_, _catharticus_ and _virigatius_, known as Turkey or French berries, is used for dyeing leather yellow. When mixed with lime and evaporated to dryness, it forms the color called sap-green. A great quantity of yellow berries are annually shipped from Constantinople; 115 tons were imported into Liverpool last year. The average annual imports into the United Kingdom are about 450 tons. They come from the Levant in hair bales weighing three and a quarter cwt., or in tierces of four to five cwt., and are used by calico printers for dyeing a yellow color. They are sometimes called Persian berries.

It is a subject of surprise that the common betel-nut of the East has never been introduced for dyeing purposes. The roots of the awl tree of Malabar and other parts of India, _Morinda citrifolia_, and of _M. tinctoria_, found abundant in all the Asiatic islands, are extensively used as a dye stuff for giving a red color. It is usually grown as a prop and shade for the pepper vine and coffee tree. The coloring matter resides principally in the bark of the roots, which are long and slender, and the small pieces are the best, fetching 8s. to 10s. a maund. It is exported in large quantities from Malabar to Guzerat, and the northern parts of Hindostan, but seldom finds its way to Europe.

The wood and roots of another species, _M. umbellata_, known in the eastern islands as "Mangkudu," are used extensively for their red dye, in Celebes and Java. Specimens of all these, and of the Lopisip bark, bunchong bulu wood, and the gaju gum (from undescribed plants), have been introduced into England. They are said to furnish excellent dyes in the Asiatic islands. Native dyes from Arracan have also been imported, viz., thit-tel and the-dan yielding red dyes, ting-nget and reros, affording dark purple dyes; and thit-nan-weng, a chocolate dye. These would be worth enquiry, and particulars of the plants yielding them, the quantities available, and the prices might be procured. Dyes and colors from the following plants are obtained in India: several species of _Terminalia_, _Sinecarpus Anacardium_, _Myrica Sapide_, _Nelumbium speciosus_, _Butea frondosa_, and _Nyctanthes arboretristis_. The bunkita barring, obtained from an undescribed plant in Borneo, produces a dark purple or black dye. A species of ruellia, under the name of "Room," is employed in its raw state by the Khamptis and Lingphos to dye their clothes of a deep blue. It is described by the late Dr. Griffiths as "a valuable dye, and highly worthy of attention." It might, perhaps, be usefully employed as the ground for a black dye. In Nepaul they use the bark of _Photinia dubia_ or _Mespilus Bengalensis_ for dyeing scarlet. The bark of the black oak, _Quercus tinctoria_ and its varieties, natives of North America, are used by dyers under the name of quercitron.

In the south of Europe, _Daphne Gnidium_ is used to dye yellow. The root of reilbon, a sort of madder in Chili, dyes red. A purple tint or dye is obtained from the bark of an undescribed tree, known under the name of "_Grana ponciana_," growing about Quito; and Stevenson (Travels in South America) says, "if known in Europe, it would undoubtedly become an article of commerce." Another much more expensive species of coloring matter (red) is obtained in various parts of South America from the leaves of the _Bignonia Chica_, a climbing evergreen shrub, native of the Orinoco country, with large handsome panicles of flowers. The coloring substance is obtained by decoction, which deposits, when cool, a red matter; this is formed into cakes and dried. Dr. Ure thinks it might probably be turned to account in the arts of civilization. The order of plants to which it belongs, contains a vast number of species, all natives of tropical regions, and their value for the production of coloring substances may be worth investigation.

It is met with in British Guiana, and the Indian tribes of that district prepare the pigment with which they stain their skin from it; it is called by them "Caraveru." The coloring matter is used as a dye in the United States, and for artistical purposes would rival madder. Sir Robert Schomburgk thinks it might form an article of export if it were sufficiently known, as its preparation is extremely simple. The leaves are dried in the sun, and at the first exposure, after having been plucked from the vine which produces them, they show the abundant feculent substance which they contain.

LANA DYE.--A beautiful bluish-black color, known as "Caruto," is procured in Demerara and Berbice from the juice of the fruit of the _Genipa Americana_, Linn.--a tree very common in the colony. The Indians use it for staining their faces and persons. The Lana dye was honorably mentioned by the jurors at the Great Exhibition in 1851. The bluish-black color obtained from it is remarkably permanent, a fact which has very long been known, though hardly any attempt appears to have been made to introduce it to the notice of European dyers. Another pigment is prepared by them from arnotto, mixed with turtle oil, or carap oil, obtained from the seeds of the _Carapa guianensis_ (Aubl.). The wild plantain (_Urania guianensis_) and the cultivated plantain (_Musa paridisiaca_), the Mahoe (_Thespesia populnea_), and the pear seed of the Avocado (_Persea gratissima_), furnish dyes in various parts of the West Indies; specimens of many of these have been imported from British Guiana and Trinidad.

Russia produces good specimens of the wood of _Statice coriaria_, the leaves and bark of sumach, the bark of the wild pomegranate, yellow berries, _Madia sativa_, saffron, safflower and madder roots for dyeing purposes.

_Avicenna tomentosa_, a species of mangrove, is very common about the creeks of Antigua, Jamaica, and other West India islands, where it is used for dyeing and tanning.

In New Zealand, the natives produce a most brilliant blue-black dye from the bark of the Eno, which is in great abundance. Some of the borders of the native mats, of a most magnificent black, are dyed with this substance. It has been tried in New South Wales; but, as with other local dyes, although found well suited for flax, hemp, linen, or other vegetable productions, it could not be fixed on wools or animal matter. Dr. Holroyd, of Sydney, some time since, imported a ton of it for a friend near Bathurst. It is of great importance that chemical science should be applied to devise some means of fixing this valuable dye on wool. As the tree is so common, the bark could be had in any quantity at about £3 10s. a ton; and our tweed manufacturers are in great want of a black dye for their check and other cloths.

The principal heavy woods used for dyeing are fustic, logwood, Nicaragua wood, barwood, camwood, red Sanders wood, Brazil wood, and sappan wood. All the dyewoods are nearly £2 per ton higher than last year.

Common Spanish fustic which in September, 1852, was only £3 10s. per ton, now fetches £6 10s. in the Liverpool market; and there is a great demand for all kinds of dyewoods. Tampico and Puerto Cabello fustic are now worth £6 10s. to £7 the ton, Cuba ditto, £9 10s. to £10.

Sappan wood is £4 higher than last year; barwood has risen cent per cent; logwoods are £2 per ton higher.

The following were the prices of the different dyewoods in the Liverpool market, on the 1st September, 1853, per ton:--

£ s. d. £ s. d.
FUSTIC, common Spanish 5 10 0 to 6 10 0
Tampico 6 10 0 7 0 0
Puerto Cabello 6 10 0 7 10 0
Cuba 8 0 0 9 10 0
LOGWOOD, Jamaica 5 0 0 5 5 0
St. Domingo 5 5 0 5 10 0
Campeachy, direct 7 12 6 8 0 0
Indirect and Tobasco 6 10 0 7 0 0
NICARAGUA. WOOD.
Rio de la Hache, solid 9 0 0 11 10 0
" " small 6 0 0 6 10 0
Lima 12 0 0 14 10 0
BARWOOD, Angola }
Gaboon } 7 0 0 -----
CAMWOOD 25 0 0 30 10 0
RED SANDERS WOOD 5 15 0 6 10 0
SAPPAN WOOD 10 0 0 15 0 0

RED SANDERS WOOD (_Pterocarpus santalinus_), which is hard and of a bright garnet red color, is employed to dye a lasting reddish brown on wool. It only yields its color to ether or alcohol. The tree, which is a lofty one, is common about Madras and other parts of India; it is also indigenous to Ceylon, Timor, and other Eastern islands. The exports of this wood from Madras in one year have been nearly 2,000 tons.

The imports of red Sanders wood from Calcutta and Bombay chiefly into London are to the extent of 700 or 800 tons a year, worth £6 to £9 per ton.

Of FUSTIC we import from 1,500 to 2,000 tons annually. We derive our supplies from Brazil, Tampico, Puerto Cabello, Cuba, and Jamaica. The best is obtained from Cuba; for while the common white fustic from Jamaica and the Spanish Main fetches only £5 10s. to £6 10s. the ton, that of Cuba realizes from £8 to £9 10s. the ton.

SAPPAN WOOD (_Cæsalpinia Sappan_) is an article of considerable commerce in the East. It is the bukkum wood of Scinde, and is procured in Mergui, Bengal, the Tenasserim Provinces, Malabar and Ceylon. In 1842 as much 78,000 cwts. were shipped from Ceylon, but the export from thence has decreased. This island, however, ships dyewoods annually to the amount of £2,000. A large quantity is exported from Siam and the Philippine Islands; as much as 200,000 piculs annually from the former, and 23,000 piculs from Manila. 3,524 piculs were shipped from Singapore in 1851, and 4,074 piculs in 1852. The picul is about one cwt. and a quarter. Sappan wood yields a yellowish color, like that of Brazil wood (_C. brasiliensis_) but it does not afford of dye matter so much in quantity or so good in quality.

It forms a large export from Ceylon: the shipments from thence were, in 1842, 77,694 cwt.; in 1843, 1,692; in 1844, 2,592; in 1845, 2,854. I have no detailed returns at hand, but in 1837, 23,695 piculs of sappan wood, and 2,266 piculs of roots of ditto were shipped, and in the first six months of 1843, 22,326 piculs were exported from Manila; a large portion of this comes to Europe, but some goes to China, the United States, Singapore, &c. 15,500 piculs were shipped from Manila in 1844, 5,250 ditto in 1845; and 1,210 tons in 1850. About 3,000 piculs of sappan wood and the same quantity of other dye-stuffs are annually imported into Shanghae. The price of straight sappan wood at Shanghae in July, last year, was thirty dollars per picul.

In Calcutta, in June last year, 4,000 piculs of the root of Manila sappan wood sold freely at about 7s. 6d. per factory maund, Siam ditto 6s.

75 tons were imported into Liverpool in 1849; and 120 tons in 1850, from Calcutta. The imports of sappan wood into the United Kingdom, in 1850, amounted to 3,670 tons, worth £8 to £12 the ton, and this continued the price in January 1853.

Camwood, red sanders wood, barwood, and other dye woods, are found in great quantities in many parts of Africa. The dyes of Africa are found to resist both acids and light, properties which no other dyes seem to possess in the same degree. About thirty miles east of Bassia Cove, in the republic of Liberia, is the commencement of a region of unknown extent, where scarcely any tree is seen except the camwood. This boundless forest of wealth, as yet untouched, is easily accessible from that settlement; roads can be opened to it with little expense, and the neighbouring kings would probably give their co-operation to a measure so vastly beneficial to themselves. It is impossible to ascertain the exact amount of export of these commodities to Europe and the United States, but it is very great, and employs a large amount of vessels. One Liverpool house imported 600 tons in a single year, worth £9,000.

In 1841 upwards of 3,000 tons of dye woods were imported into Liverpool from the western coast of Africa.

CAMWOOD (_Baphia nitida_) is used as a mordant and for producing the bright red color seen in English bandana handkerchiefs. The imports from Sierra Leone to Liverpool in 1849 were 216 tons, worth £20 to £25 per ton.

Gaboon barwood is another variety of this dyewood which is imported from the west coast of Africa, in straight flat pieces, from three to, five feet in length; the average annual import being about 2,000 tons, of the value of £4 a ton.

The imports of barwood into Liverpool were in--

Tons.
1835 2,000
1836 1,000
1837 1,150
1838 650
1839 350
1841 2,012
1850 1,710

Dyewoods imported in 1850. Re-exported.
Logwood 32,930 4,332
Fustic 9,808 1,771
Nicaragua 7,909 112
Barwood 1,896 1,229
Sappan 3,670 --
Green Ebony, and }
Cocuswood } 1,457 --
Red Sanders 656 --
Camwood 416 --
Brazil and Brazillito 309 --
------ -----
59,051 7,444

Thus we perceive the annual consumption of heavy dyewoods in this country, in dyeing cotton, linen, woollen and silk goods, &c., exceeds in weight 51,000 tons.

ARNOTTO.--The plants of this family are chiefly natives of the warmest parts of South America, the East and West Indies, and Africa. In America the seeds are called achote or roucou. From the port of Barcelona, in Venezuela, about 2,000 quintals are annually exported. The species grown for its dye is the _Bixa orellana_. It is used to impart a bright orange color to silk goods, and to afford a deeper shade to simple yellows. The dry hard paste is also found to be the best of all ingredients for giving a golden tint to cheese or butter. A convenient liquid preparation is now sold to dairymen. The Spanish Americans mix it with their chocolate, to which it gives a beautiful rich hue.

It is of two sorts, viz.:--

1. Flag or cake arnotto, which is by far the most important article in a commercial point of view, is furnished almost wholly by Cayenne. It is imported in square cakes, weighing two or three pounds each, wrapped in banana leaves, packed in casks.

2. Roll arnotto is principally brought from Brazil. The rolls are small, not exceeding two or three ounces in weight. It is hard, dry, and compact, brownish on the outside, and of a beautiful red color within.

The dye is usually prepared by macerating the pods in boiling water for a week or longer. When they begin to ferment, the seeds ought to be strongly stirred and bruised with wooden pestles to promote the separation of the red skins. This process is repeated several times, till the seeds are left white. The liquor passed through close cane sieves, pretty thick, of a deep red color, and a very bad smell, is received into coppers. In boiling, it throws up its coloring matter to the surface in the form of scum, which is taken off, saved in large pans, and afterwards boiled down to a due consistence, and then made up, when soft, into balls or cakes of two or three pounds weight.

The following description of the manufacture is from Dr. Ure:--

"The pods of the tree being gathered, their seeds are taken out and bruised; they are then transferred to a vat, which is called the steeper, where they are mixed with as much water as covers them. Here the substance is left for several weeks or even months; it is now squeezed through sieves placed above the steeper, that the water containing the coloring matter in suspension may return into the vat. The residuum is preserved under the leaves of the pine-apple shrub, till it becomes hot by fermentation. It is again subjected to the same operation, and this treatment is continued till no more color remains.

"The substance thus extracted is passed through sieves, in order to separate the remainder of the seeds, and the color is allowed to subside. The precipitate is boiled in coppers till it be reduced to a consistent paste; it is then suffered to cool, and dried in the shade. Instead of this long and painful labor, which occasions diseases by the putrefaction induced and which affords a spoiled product, Leblond proposes simply to wash the seeds of arnotto till they be entirely deprived of their color, which lies wholly on their surface; to precipitate the color by means of vinegar or lemon juice, and to boil it up in the ordinary manner, or to drain it in bags as is practised with indigo.

"The experiments which Vauquelin made on the seeds of arnotto imported by Leblond, confirmed the efficacy of the process which he proposed; and the dyers ascertained that the arnotto obtained in this manner was worth at least four times more than that of commerce; that, moreover, it was more easily employed; that it required less solvents; that it gave less trouble in the copper, and furnished a purer color."--("Dict. of Arts.")

Our imports of arnotto for home consumption are from 200,000 to 300,000 lbs. per annum. The plant is grown in Dacca and other parts of India, and the eastern Archipelago. At the Hawaiian Islands, Tongataboo, Rio Janeiro, Peru and Zanzibar, the arnotto is an indigenous shrub which rises to the height of seven or eight feet, producing oblong heavy pods, somewhat resembling those of a chesnut. Within these there are generally thirty or forty irregularly-formed seeds, which are enveloped in a pulp of a bright red color, and a fragrant smell.

The imports of arnotto have been as follows:--

Retained for
lbs. home consumption.
1834 252,981 --
1835 163,421 --
1839 303,489 224,794
1840 408,469 330,490
1847 270,000 296,821
1849 162,400 145,824
1850 301,504 231,280

The price of flag arnotto in the London market, in June 1853, was 1s. per lb.

We imported from France, in 1850, 1,924 cwt. of roll or flag arnotto, of the official value of £21,499; and in 1851, 1,253 cwt., worth £13,968.

Wood dye exported from Ceylon--

Value Quantity
£ cwts.
1848 1,359 --
1849 2,035 --
1850 1,766 5,206
1851 259 776
1852 770 2,396

CHAY-ROOT.--There is a plant called chay, the _Oldenlandia umbellata_, which is extensively cultivated as a dye plant in the East, especially on the coasts of Coromandel, Nellore, Masulipatam, Malabar, and other parts of India. The outer bark of the roots furnishes the coloring matter for the durable red for which the chintzes of India are famous. Chay-root forms a considerable article of export from Ceylon. The wild plant there is considered preferable; the roots, which are shorter, yielding one-fourth part more coloring matter, and the right to dig it is farmed out. It grows spontaneously on light, dry, sandy ground on the sea coast; the cultivated roots are slender, with a few lateral fibres, and from one to two feet long. The dye is said to have been tried in Europe, but not with very advantageous effect. Dr. Bancroft suspects it may be injured by the long voyage, but he adds that it cannot produce any effect which may not be more cheaply obtained from madder.

This red dye, similar to Munjeet, is used to a great extent in the southern parts of Hindostan by the native dyers.

It is not held in very good estimation in Europe but seems to deserve a better reputation than it at present possesses. Attention was drawn to it as a dye-stuff in 1798, by a special minute of the Board of Trade recommending its importation; but Dr. Bancroft, who made some experiments with a sample of damaged chay-root, considered it inferior to madder and hence discouraged its further importation.

The bark and root of various species of Morinda (_M. citrifolia_ and _tinctoria_) are used in different parts of the East Indies, and considered a very valuable red dye. The colors dyed with it are for the most part exceedingly brilliant, and the coloring matter is far more permanent than many other red colors are, with improved management it would probably rival that of madder, and is, therefore, worthy more attention from dyers.

MANGROVE BARK (_Rhizophora mangle_), is used to dye a chocolate color in the East and West Indies. This was one of the colors introduced by Dr. Bancroft, and for the exclusive use of which he obtained an Act of Parliament. It is procured in plenty at Arracan, Malabar, and Singapore in the East.

SHUMAC or SUMACH, sometimes called young fustic, is the powder of the leaves, peduncles, and young branches of a small deciduous plant (_Rhus coriaria_), native of the South of Europe, but which is also grown in Syria and Palestine, for its powerful astringent properties, which renders it valuable for tanning light-colored leather, and it imparts a beautiful bright yellow dye to cottons, which is rendered permanent by proper mordants. It is principally imported from the Ionian Islands and the Morea. The species grown for the purpose in Spain, Portugal, and Italy is _R. Cotinus_, a shrub with pale purple flowers, whereas _R. coriaria_ has greenish yellow blossoms. They may be propagated by cuttings of the roots and layers. _R. typhina_, and _R. glabia_, with their varieties, are North American species, which are also used for tanning purposes. In Montpellier and the South of France the twigs and leaves are known under the name of _redoul_ or _roudo_. They are gathered every year, and the shoots are chipped or reduced to powder by a mill.

The imports into the United Kingdom were in 1846,10,256 tons; in 1847, 11,975 tons; in 1848, 9,617 tons; in 1849, 12,590 tons; in 1850, 12,929 tons, and in 1852, 9,758; which were all retained for consumption. In 1841, we received about 9,000 tons from the port of Leghorn. There were exported from Sicily in 1842, 123,305 tons, valued at £68,894. It is imported in packages of about a cwt., wrapped in cloth. America takes a large quantity of sumach. The imports into the port of Boston alone, were 19,070 bags in 1847; 34,524 in 1848; and 30,050 in 1849.

The prices in Liverpool, duty paid, in the close of this year, are per cwt.:--

s. d. s. d.
Sicily, Messina 10 0 to 10 6
" Palermo 12 0 " 13 0
" Trieste 7 0 " 7 6
" Verona 5 6 " 6 6
" Tyrolese 8 0 " 9 0

SAFFLOWER.--The dried flowers of _Carthamus tinctorius_ yield a pink dye, which is used for silks and cottons, and the manufacture of rouge; the color, however, is very fugitive. It is an annual plant, cultivated in China, India, Egypt, America, Spain, and some of the warmer parts of Europe; and is indigenous to the whole of the Indian Archipelago. A large quantity is grown in and exported from Bali. The Chinese safflower is considered the best, and that from Bombay is least esteemed. The annual quantity exported from the district of Dacca averages about 150 tons. The shipments from Calcutta exceed 300 tons to various quarters. Our imports are on the decline, and are now only about 1,200 cwt. per annum. Safflower was shown in the Great Exhibition from Celebes, Assam, the vicinity of Calcutta, Dacca, the states of Rajpootana, and other places.

There are two species: _C. tinctorius_, which has small leaves and an orange flower; and _C. oxyacantha_, with larger leaves and a yellow flower, a native of Caucasus. The former is cultivated in Egypt, the Levant, &c., where it forms a considerable article of commerce. 6,633 cwts. of safflower were imported into the United Kingdom in 1835, of which about one-half was retained for home consumption. Of 5,352 cwts. imported in 1840, nearly the whole came from our possessions in the East. In 1847, about 405 tons were imported; in 1848, 506 tons; in 1849, 407 tons; in 1850, 522 tons. The price of safflower varies from £1 to £8 per cwt., according to quality. That from Bombay is least esteemed, fetching only 20s. to 30s.

The annual quantity of safflower, according to Dr. Taylor, exported from the district of Dacca for eight years ending with 1839, amounted to 4,000 maunds, or about 149 tons. The exports through the Calcutta Custom House are occasionally large: in 1824-25 there were about 316 tons; 8,500 Indian maunds were shipped from Calcutta in each of the years 1841 and 1842.

The prices in the Liverpool market, in January 1853, were for Bengal, good and fine, £6 to £7 10s. per cwt.; middling, £4 to £4 10s.; inferior and ordinary, £2 10s. to £3.

GAMBOGE is extensively used as a pigment, from its bright yellow color. There are two kinds known in commerce, the Ceylon and the Siam. The former is procured from the _Hebradendron Cambogoides_, Graham; a tree which grows wild on the Malabar and Ceylon coasts, and affords the coarsest kind. The pipe gamboge of Siam is said to be obtained from the bruised leaves and young branches of _Stalagmites cambogoides_. The resinous sap is received into calabashes, and allowed to thicken, after which it is formed into rolls. Several other plants, as the _Mangostana Gambogia_, Gaertner, and the _Hypericum bacciferum_ and _Cayanense_, yield similar yellow viscid exudation, hardly distinguishable from gamboge and used for the same purpose by painters. The _Garcinia elliptica_, Wallich, of Tavoy and Moulmein, affords gamboge, and approaches very closely in its characters to Graham's _Hebradendron_. In like manner the Mysore tree bears an exceedingly close resemblance to that species. It is common in the forests of Wynaad in the western part of Mysore, and has been named by Dr. Christison _Hebradendron pictorium_. Another gamboge tree has recently been found inhabiting the western Burmese territories. Both these seem to furnish an equally fine pigment. As it can be obtained in unlimited quantity, it might be introduced into European trade, if the natives learn how to collect it in a state of purity, and make it up in homogenous masses in imitation of pipe gamboge, the finest Siam variety. It seems to possess more coloring matter, more resin and less gum than the ordinary gamboge of commerce. Gamboge owes its color to the fatty acid. The resin must be regarded as the chief constituent, and is most abundant in that imported from Ceylon, which contains about 76 per cent., and is therefore best adapted for painting. Gamboge also has its medicinal uses.

Various species of _Lecanora_, particularly _L. tartarea_, known as cudbear, are used in dyeing woollen yarn. The _Rocella tinctoria_ and _fusiformis_ furnish the orchil, or orchilla weed of commerce, which is sometimes sold as a moist pulp, but usually in the form of dry cakes, known under the name of _litmus_; it produces a fine purple color. Our imports, which have amounted to 6,000 or 7,000 cwts. annually, are derived chiefly from the Canary, Azores, and Cape Verd Islands. Rock orchilla was shown at the Exhibition, from the Berlingen Isles, from Angola, Madeira and the Cape de Verds. Orchilla weed is very plentiful about the shores of the islands of New Zealand, some being sent from thence to the Exhibition; but from a want of knowledge as to the time at which it should be gathered, and the mode of preparing it for the market, it has not yet become a saleable commodity there. The rich varieties of lichens on the rocks and plains of Australia have not been tested, as they ought to be, with Helot's lichen test. Various lichens, and _Rocella tinctoria_, from Tenasserim and other parts of India, have been introduced by the East India Company. In the Admiralty instructions given to Capt. Sir James C. Ross, on his Antarctic voyage, a few years ago, his attention was specially called to the search and enquiry for substitutes for the _Rocella_, which is now becoming scarce. A prize medal was awarded, in 1851, to an exhibitor from the Elbe for specimens of the weed, and an extract of red and violet orchil. Specimens of varieties of the lichens used in the manufacture of cudbear, orchil and litmus, and of the substance obtained, were also shown in the British department, which were awarded prize medals.

The beauty of the dyes given by common materials, in the Highlands of Scotland, to some of the cloths which were exhibited, should lead our botanists and chemists to examine, more closely than they have hitherto done, the dye-stuffs that might be extracted from British plants. Woad (_Isatis tinctoria_) and the dyers' yellow woad (_Reseda lutea_), are both well known. A piece of tweed, spun and woven in Ross-shire, was dyed brown and black, by such cheap and common dyes as moss and alder bark, and the colors were unexceptionable.

Sutherlandshire tweed and stockings, possessing a rich brown color, were produced with no more valuable dye than soot; in another piece, beautifully dyed, the yellow was obtained from stoney rag, brown from the crops of young heather, and purple from the same, but subjecting the yarn to a greater action of the dye than was necessary to produce brown. There is very little doubt but that beautiful and permanent dyes, from brown to a very rich purple, might be cheaply procured by scientific preparations of the common heather (_Genista tinctoria_). The inhabitants of Skye exhibited cloth with a peculiarly rich dye, obtained from the "crobal" moss. In the Spanish department, specimens of vegetable dyes from many cultivated and wild plants were furnished by the Agricultural Board of Saragossa, and of several of these it would be important to obtain descriptions and particulars.

Gums are of essential importance to the dyer, and the imports of these, therefore, are large, averaging about 8,000 tons.

INDIGO.

The plants which afford this dye grow chiefly in the East and West Indies, in the middle regions of America, in Africa and Europe. They are all species of the genera _Indigofera_, _Isatis_ and _Nerium_. _Indigofera tinctoria_ or _coerulea_, furnishes the chief indigo of commerce, and affords in Bengal, Malabar, Madagascar, the Isle of France, and St. Domingo, an article of middling quality, but not in large quantity. The _Indigofera disperma_, a plant cultivated in the East Indies and America, grows higher than the preceding, is woody, and furnishes a superior dye-stuff. The Guatamela indigo comes from this species.

_Indigofera Anil_ grows in the same countries, and also in the West Indies. The _Indigofera Argentea_, which flourishes in Africa, yields little indigo, but it is of an excellent quality. _I. pseudotinctoria_, cultivated in the East Indies, furnishes the best of all. _I. glauca_ is the Egyptian and Arabian species. There are also the _cinerea_, _erecta_ (a native of Guinea), _hirsuta_, _glabra_, with red flowers, species common to the East, and several others.

The _Wrightia tinctoria_, of the East Indies, an evergreen, with white blossoms, affords some indigo, as does the _Isatis tinctoria_, or, Woad, in Europe, and the _Polygonum tinctorium_, with red flowers, a native of China. _Baptisia tinctoria_ furnishes a blue dye, and is the wild indigo of the United States.

SOURCES OF SUPPLY.--Indigo is at present grown for commercial purposes in Bengal, and the other provinces of that Presidency, from the 20th to the 30th deg. of north latitude; in the Province of Tinnevelly; in the Madras Presidency; in Java, in the largest of the Philippine islands, in Guatemala, Caraccas, Central America and Brazil. Bengal is, however, the chief mart for indigo, and the quantity produced in other places is comparatively inconsiderable. It is also still cultivated in some of the West India islands, especially St. Domingo, but not in large quantities. Indigo grows wild in several parts of Palestine, but attention seems not to have been given to its cultivation or collection. On most parts of the eastern and western coasts of Africa, it is indigenous; at Sierra Leone, Natal, and other places it is found abundant.

In our settlements of Honduras, Demerara, and various portions of the American continent, it would amply reward the labor of the cultivator; several inferior sorts of Indigofera being found there indigenous, and only requiring care and culture to improve them.

The quality of indigo depends upon the species of the plant, its ripeness, the soil and climate of its growth, and the mode of manufacture. The East India, and Brazilian indigo arrives here packed in chests, the Guatemala in ox-hides, called serons.

The indigo imported from the western hemisphere was for some time considered superior in quality to that of the East. Its cultivation, however, has been neglected, and the Bengal indigo is preferred at present to any imported from South America, where it is now only cultivated by the Brazilians and Colombians. If proper attention were paid to the cultivation of the plant, and to the preparation of the dye, it is very likely part of that important trade would be brought back. It thrives best in a moist climate, and the interior of Guiana, chiefly newly-cleared land, would be well adapted for it.

The late Mr. Dunlop ("Travels in Central America") gives an interesting description, which, at the risk of repetition in some points, I shall give entire.

"Several vessels generally arrive at the Union from South America at the time of the periodical fairs, where nearly all the indigo (the only produce of any importance), is disposed of; formerly it reached 10,000 bales, but at present it does not at most exceed 3,000 bales of 150 lbs. each.

The indigo well known in Europe by the name of Guatemala indigo, was never cultivated in that province (in the same manner as not a grain of the Honduras cochineal is grown there), being entirely grown in the state of San Salvador, in the vicinity of San Miguel, San Vicenti, and the City of Salvador, with the exception of a small quantity of very superior quality grown in the state of Nicaragua, and a few bales in Costa Rica, which is all consumed in the State. Under the government of Spain, the produce of the state of San Salvador alone had reached 10,000 bales, and that of Nicaragua 2,000; the produce of San Salvador in 1820, two years before its independence, being 8,323 bales. But since 1822 the annual produce had gradually declined, and in 1846 it did not exceed 1,000 to 1,200 bales, nearly all the indigo estates being abandoned, partly, no doubt, from the great fall in the price of the article, but more on account of the impossibility of getting laborers to work steadily.

The plant cultivated in Central America for the manufacture of indigo, is the triennial plant, supposed to be a native of America; but there is also an indigenous perennial plant, abounding in many parts of Central America, which produces indigo of a very superior quality, but gives less than half the weight which is produced by the cultivated species. The ground for sowing the indigo seed is prepared in April,--a piece of good forest land near one of the towns being selected, a part is cut to make a rude fence, and the remainder burnt, which is easily accomplished, as everything is very dry at that season; and the ground is afterwards scratched with two sticks, fastened crosswise, to resemble somewhat the shape of a plough, and the seed scattered over it by hand. The rainy season always commences early in May, and the indigo is ready for cutting about the middle of July, taking about two and a half months to come to perfection. The growing crop somewhat resembles lucerne, and is in the best state for making indigo, when it becomes covered with a sort of greenish farina.

The crop of the first year is small, and sometimes not worth manufacturing; that of the second year is the best, and the third is also very good, if it has been carefully weeded; but many indigo fields have lasted more than ten years without being re-sown, as the seed which falls naturally springs up again, and where the land is good yields nearly as large a crop as a new sown field. When the plant is ready for manufacturing, a number of men are collected, each of whom is either provided with, or brings his own mule or horse, if he has one. Two men always go together, cut the plant, then about the height of full-grown red clover, and take it to the vats, which are large tanks made of brick and lime, holding at least 1,000 gallons, and some as much as 10,000. Into these the plant is thrown till they are nearly full, when weights are put above it to prevent its floating; and the vats filled with water till it covers the mass of the indigo plant. After remaining from twelve to twenty-four hours, according to the state of the plant, weather, and other circumstances (the time required being determined by the color which the water assumes), the herb is taken out, and the water beaten with paddles in the very small vats, and by a wheel suspended above and turned by men or horses in the larger ones, till it changes from a green color, which it has acquired ere the removal of the herb, to a fine blue, when it is allowed to stand for some hours, till the coloring matter has settled to the bottom of the tank, a process which is generally hastened by throwing in an infusion of certain herbs to facilitate its settlement, or as the natives term it curdle (_cuajar_) the colored water. As soon as all the color has settled, the water is drawn off, and the blue, which is of the consistency of thick mud, is taken out of the vat and spread upon cotton, or coarse woollen cloth, and dried in the sun. The color in a great measure depends upon removing the herb exactly at the proper time, and upon properly beating the water, neither too long, or too short. Unless these processes are properly performed, the indigo will not be of first-rate quality; but some estates will never produce the best indigo, whatever care may be bestowed on the manufacture.

A _mansana_, of 100 yards square, which is nearly two British statute acres, produces generally about 100 to 120 lbs. of indigo, the carriage and cutting of the herb costing about twenty dollars, and the cleaning of the field and all other expenses connected with it, including the manufacture of the indigo, about as much more.

The indigo of Central America is not put into moulds when drying, as that of Bengal, but is allowed to remain in the rough shape in which it dries, and without further preparation is ready for baling and exportation.

The bales are generally made up in 150 lbs. each, and the quality is classed by numbers, from 1 to 9; Nos. 1 to 3 being of the quality called _cobres_ in Europe; Nos. 4 to 6 of that called _cortes_, and Nos. 7 to 9 of that called _flores_; Nos. 1 to 6 do not at present pay the expenses of manufacture, and are never intentionally made. No doubt, with a little more skill in the manufacture, the whole might, as in Bengal, be made of the quality called _flores_; but such improvements cannot be expected till a new race of people inhabit Central America. At present about one-half of the indigo produced is under No. 7, and as the cultivation is said not to pay at the present prices--and, indeed, hardly can be supposed to compete with Bengal, a country where labor is so much cheaper, and capital abundant--it is probable, that the cultivation will shortly be entirely abandoned, unless the price should again rise in Europe." In 1846, 21,933 lbs. of indigo were exported from Angostura.

The following particulars were contributed to my "Colonial Magazine," by the late Dr. Edward Binns, of Jamaica:--

The species generally cultivated is the _I. tinctoria_, which
requires a rich moist soil and warm weather. The seed, which is at
first sight not unlike coarse gunpowder, is sown three or four
inches deep, in straight lines, twelve or fifteen inches apart. The
shoots appear above ground in about a week; at the end of two months
the plant flowers, when it is fit for cutting, which is done with a
pruning knife. It must be mentioned that great care is requisite in
weeding the indigo field when plants first shoot through the earth.
In the State of St. Salvador, large vats made of mahogany, or other
hard wood, are constructed for the reception of the plant, where it
is allowed to undergo maceration and fermentation. In a short time
the water becomes greenish, and emits a strong pungent smell, while
carbonic acid gas is freely evolved. In about twenty-four hours it
is run off into large flat vessels, and stirred about until a blue
scum appears, when additional water is added, and the blue flakes
sink to the bottom. The supernatant water has now acquired a
yellowish tinge, when it is run off carefully, and the blue deposit
or sediment put into bags to drain. It is subsequently dried in the
shade, or sometimes in the sun, then placed in cotton bags and
carried to the indigo fair, or forwarded to the city of Guatemala.

The East Indian mode of manufacturing the indigo differs materially,
and many suppose it preferable to the Salvador. It consists in
_steaming_ the fermented mass in large pipes enclosed in huge
boilers. I am inclined to believe this to be the most economical, if
not the best way of manufacturing indigo. From Guatemala alone, it
is computed that from 6,000 to 8,000 serons of indigo are exported
annually; while San Miguel, Chalatenaugo, Tejulta, Secatecolnea, St.
Vincent, Sensuntepepe, not only, it is said, produce a larger
quantity, but the four last-mentioned places have the advantage as
to quality. The _Belize Advertiser_ stated, some time since, that
the value of this dye from one State in 1830 produced 2,000,000
dollars, the minimum of an immense sum which has been most unjustly
and unwisely wrested from the people of Jamaica, and the West India
islands.

Bridges ("Annals of Jamaica," p. 584, Append.), speaking of the vast
returns of an indigo plantation, says, "The labour of a single negro
would often bring to his owner £30 sterling per annum clear
profit,--a sum which was at the time the laborer's highest price. It
continued the _staple_ of Jamaica till an intolerable tax oppressed
it, while its price was lowered by the competition of other
colonies.

Its cultivation immediately declined throughout them all, but
nowhere so rapidly as here. The financial error was quickly
discovered,--a remedy was attempted by a bounty; but it came too
late, the plantations were thrown up, and the planters, attracted by
the temporary gain, abused the tardy boon, by introducing, as of
their own growth, large quantities of foreign indigo." As Bridges
may be said in this passage to be merely a commentator on Edwards,
who has entered more largely upon the subject, I shall condense from
the latter, statements connected with the manufacture and decay of
this branch of industry, once the staple of Jamaica.