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.