MADDER is a plant, with rough nar row leaves, set in form of a star, at the joints of the stalk. The root, which is the only part made use of, is long, slender, of a red colour, both on the outside and within, excepting a whitish pith which runs along the middle. For cultivating this plant, the ground is ploughed deep in autumn, and again in March ; and then laid up in ridges, eighteen inches asunder, and about a. foot high. About the begin ning of April, they open the ground where old roots are planted, and take off all the side shoots which extend them selves horizontally ; these they transplant immediately upon the new ridges, at about a foot distance, they remain two seasons : and at Michaelmas, when the tops of the plants are decayed, they take up the roots. It is to be observed, that this method of planting in ridges is only necessary in wet land, and that the rows are sometimes planted three feet, and the plants in the rows eighteen inches asunder. If all the horizontal
roots are destroyed from time to time, it will cause the large, downright roots, to be much bigger, in which the goodness of this commodity chiefly consists. Mad der gives out its colour, both to water and rectified spirit : the watery tincture is of a dark dull red ; the spirituous of a deep bright one. It imparts to woollen cloth, prepared with alum and tartar, a very durable, though not a very beautiful red dye. As it is the cheapest of all the red drugs that give a durable colour, it is the principal one commonly made use of for ordinary stuffs. Sometimes its dye is heightened by the addition of Brazil wood, and sometimes it is employed hi conjunction with the dearer reds, as cochineal ; for demi-scarlets, and demi crimsons.