=Hair-cloth Reviver.=—­Mix equal parts of marrow-oil (neats-foot), ox-gall. and ivory-black, to be well rubbed with a cloth.  This composition forms a valuable renovator for old hair-cloth.

=To Remove Grease Stains from Silks, Damasks, Cloth, etc.=—­Pour over the stain a small quantity of benzoline spirit, and it will soon disappear without leaving the least mark behind.  The most delicate colours can be so treated without fear of injury.  For paint stains chloroform is very efficacious.

=To Remove Ink Stains from White Marble.=—­Make a little chloride of lime into a paste with water, and rub it into the stains, and let it remain a few hours; then wash off with soap and water.

CHAPTER XI.

MATERIALS USED.

=Alkanet-root= (botanical name, Anchusa tinctoria).—­This plant is a native of the Levant, but it is much cultivated in the south of France and in Germany.  The root is the only part used by French polishers to obtain a rich quiet red; the colouring is chiefly contained in the bark or outer covering, and is easily obtained by soaking the root in spirits or linseed-oil.  The plant itself is a small herbaceous perennial, and grows to about a foot in height, with lance-shaped leaves and purple flowers, and with a long woody root with a deep red bark.

=Madder-root= (Rubia tinctoria).—­This plant is indigenous to the Levant; but it is much cultivated in Southern Europe, and also in India.  Its uses are for dyeing and staining; it can be procured in a powdered state, and imparts its red colour when soaked in water or spirits.  This is a creeping plant with a slender stem; almost quadrangular, the leaves grow four in a bunch; flowers small, fruit yellow, berry double, one being abortive.  The roots are dug up when the plant has attained the age of two or three years; they are of a long cylindrical shape, about the thickness of a quill, and of a red-brownish colour, and when powdered are a bright Turkish-red.  Extracts of madder are mostly obtained by treating the root with boiling water, collecting the precipitates which separate on cooling, mixing them with gum or starch, and adding acetate of alumina or iron.  This is in fact a mixture of colouring matter and a mordant.

=Red-sanders= (Pterocarpus santalinus).—­The tree from which this wood is obtained is a lofty one, and is to be found in many parts of India, especially about Madras.  It yields a dye of a bright garnet-red colour, and is used by French polishers for dyeing polishes, varnishes, revivers, etc.