The crimson dye is said to 'attach without' the aid of a mordant ; but otherwise, of all the more or less beautiful tints produced, scarcely one will stand washing without being fixed with mordants.
From February to May the flowers are picked off each day as they appear, leaving the flower heads on the stalk. All that is detached is the fragile -looking corolla which issues from the summit of the prickly Lasle-like flower-head. If they be intended for sale to the India dyers, they are simply dried ; but if for export to Europe in the form of the safflower of commerce, the florets are damped with water and pressed into lumps. A mat as a strainer is stretched on a wooden frame ; on this the lumps of florets are laid, and water is slowly poured over thorn, while a man treads" them with his feet, supporting himself on two sticks as crutches. In this way the yellow colouring is eliminated from the flowers, the presence of which would detract from the beauty of the crimson tint for which they are chiefly prized. When the water comes clear through the strainer, the process is complete. The flowers are then made up by hand into round flat cakes, the water squeezed off, and they are dried in the sun. In this form they are known as the safflower of commerce. Exports from India have been :— Cassia auriculata, the avarai shrub, is common in all the south of India. Its bark is largely used as a tan. It takes the place of oak bark. The flowers yield a yellow colour, and the bark is used with myrobalaits as a dye for giving a buff colour to leather.
Cassia tom seeds are used as a yellow dye. They are said also to form an ingredient in dyemg blue with indigo. About seven immersions are required to fix the colour.
Casuarina equisetifolia and C. muricata have been used about 1834 by M. Jules Isdpine of Pondicherry, who made an extract from the bark which was fixed by bichromate of potash. With alum as a mordant, it gave a reddish nankeen, and with iron, a black colour. By siinple exposure to the air, a nankeen red was produced, which stood the washing well.
Catechtt is an extract from the wood of the Acacia cateellu. In commerce it is also known as terra japonica, and gambier also is often so named ; have been used in India to give a brown dye to cotton ; and have been extensively employed in the calico printing works of England. The salts of copper
with sal-ammoniac cause catechn to yield a bronze colour, which is very permanent. Theproto-inurnsto of tin produces with it a yellowish brown. A fine deep bronze huo is also produced from cateclm by the perehloride of tin, with an addition of nitrate of copper. Acetate of alumina gives a brown, and nitrate of iron a dark-brown. For a gohlen &dice-brown, catechu entirely superseded madder, one pound of it being equivalent to six pounds of that root. It is prepared for dyeing purposes by being steeped in water with a little lime ; the solution is then strained off, and is ready for use. The dyeing principle is entechene, which is iusoluble when oxidized, to effect which, in Great Britain, a salt of copper alon,g with sal ammoniac is used. From 1877 to 1881, Great Britain itnported annually about 30,000 tons of cutch and gambler.
. Cedrela toona has white fragrant flowers, which yield a sulphur-yellow and orange. The yellow dye is extracted by boiling in water till three fourths of the water is evaporated.
Cha.vica bale is the pan or betle-leaf plant. The leaf is said to be used in Kanouj for colouring the border of chintz made there, called fard paklita.
Cinnabar, a sulphide of mercury, the shiegarf or vermilion of the bazars, ground and mixed with water, imparts a fresh pink tint to cotton cloth dipped into it.
Cochineal is a foreign dye from the Coccus cacti. The importation into British India of cochineal in 1880-81 was 4182 cwt., and in 1881-8'2, 2886 cwt, From 1877 to 1881, Great Britain imported about 30,000 cwt. annually. The aniline dyes have not seemingly affected it.
Coc.oanut rind produces a dirty brown (khaki) colour. Lime, soda, and alum are used as mordants. The rind is powdered, and soaked for a few days in water, and afterwards boiled. The stuff is washed in this water, and a subsequent wash in lime-water gives the cloth a red tint. For brown tints, lime-water is not used. Dippiug in an infusion of myrobalans renders these colon's darker and faster.