Hibiscus rosa - sinensis, the shoe flower. Its rich scarlet flowers yield a pmple juice, employed for dyeing a lilac colour, and for blackening leather. It has been found useful as a litmus.
Holigarna the, Thit-kha-ya of the Burmese, is one of the black varnish trees.
The Indigo of commerce is obtained in different countries from species of Indigofera. Since 1878, au indigo has been chemically produced, but not in commercial quantities. I. tinctoria of India, Mauritius, Madagascar, and St. Domingo, furnishes the largest quantity of indigo. The plants called in India I. anil and I. pseudo-tiuctoria are sup posed to be varieties of I. tinctoria. It is used principally as a blue dye. From 1850-51 to 1860-61, its export from India ranged in value from £1,734,338 to 12,424,332. In the 7 years 1875-76 to 1881-82, the value of the indigo exported from India has run up to 4f millions sterling : 110,392 cwt. Rs. 2,87,50,625 1876-1877, 100,384 2,96,27,855 1877-1878, 120,605 ,, 3,40,43,340 18784879, 105,051 2,96,04,6251879-1880, 100,923 . 2,94,72,265 1880-1881, 116,870 3,57,15,814 1881-1882, 150,363 4,50,96,802 In the five years 1877 to 1881, tbe imports into Great Britain ranged from 58,283 to 81,088 cwt. Manilla indigo is a liquid extract. Formosan indigo is an excellent blue dye, but as imported into China it was much adulterated with earth and refuse sugar. In Peh-chih-li, a very good indigo is sold under the name of king-tien.
Isatis tinctoria, the woad of Europe, yields a blue dye ; another species, I. indigotica, is named as a plant of Shang-hai and Chusan ; and I. tine toria, under the name of tien-tsing, is also said to be cultivated in China.
Iron oxide, with myrobalans, as with tannic and gallic acids, produces black. Sulphate of iron gives a black dye, and is very extensively used in combination with sugar (goor), and some times with myrobalans. It is also used with other substances for various colours. With myro balans it produces a greyish, purplish black dye.
Iron, impure sesquioxide, in the form of geru or red ochre, is abundant in many parts, and is extensively used by Hindu devotees for dYeing their cloths of a dull orange colour ; and is used largely. by dyers for several other colours. The
earth is. simply powdered and mixed with water, into which the cotton cloth is fixed. Red ochre of a lighter colour than geru, is known as hirmji ; and yellow ochre (hydrated sesquioxide of iron) is occasionally used as a dye, under the name of ramraj, also called zard or pili mitti.
Jatropha. curcas, the physic nut. Its juice or oil boiled with oxide of iron dyes black.
Jatropha glandulifera grows wild throughout India, and its leaves are said to yield a green dye of great beauty for cotton cloths.
Justicia, sp. According to Mr. Fortune, near Ningpo, a bastard species of Justicia furnishes much indigo. The plants being thrown into pits in the open field, and filled with water, after the rotting of its herbage, lime is added, and the liquid thoroughly mixed up and beaten ; the water is then drawn off, leaving the thick indigo paste at the bottom to dry, preparatory to being packed in bamboo baskets. The froth risinr, upon these. pits of liquid is collected and made I into an extract, called tien-hwa or ts'ing-tai, in imitation of a powder formerly brought from Persia, and in great repute as a paint, and a specific medicine.
Ka-bi-ni of Akyab is used to tinge fishing nets a brown colour.
Khandelia Rheedii of Tavoy ; its bark is used to dye cotton thread of a dirty red colour.
Lac. Coccus lacca, the lac insect of India, is found on many trees, but the best of its produce is on the Butea frondosa, Ficus religiosa, and the Schleichera trijuga, and Vatica laccifera. 1Vhen the female is about to lay her eggs, she secretes a pellucid and glutinous substance from thc margins of her body, which in the end covers the whole insect as with a cell. IVhen hardened by exposure to the air, this substance becomes of a more or less deep red or orange colour hard. and translucent. This is lac in a crude state, and it often entirely covers a branch. The lac or resinous incrustation is separated from the wood, converted into shell-lac, and cakes of lac-dye formed. It has always had competitors with cochineal and. other dyestuffs, but the aniline dyes have now almost driven the lac-dye out of the market. The quantities and values of the exports from India of lac and its products were as under : Cwt. Rs. Cwt. Rs.