RUBIA TINCTORUbf. Madder. This tree has a. diffuse brittle - branched stem, angular, very rough, with sharp hooks, and madder is the product of the long slender roots. Tho tree is only known in its cultivated state in Asia. Dr. Brandis first found it being grown in small quantity on the Sutlej at about 8000 to 8500 feet, for home consumption to dye wool red. Dr. Stewart found it in Kauawar. Irvine mentions that a little is collected in Gandaya, Baluchistan, and parts of Turkestan, but that the chief tract for its cultivation is from Kabul to near Kandahar. According to Cleghorn, madder loos been grown in the Paujab from French seeds.
It is a native of Europe and Asia Minor, is extensively cultivated in Holland and France ; the culture has likewise - been successful in Great Britain, but it is largely imported, though cochi neal has become cheaper, and is much used for the same purposes. The principal supplies are obtained from Holland, Belgium, France, Turkey, Spain, and the Balearic Isles, the Italian States, India, and Ceylon. The plant is generally raised from seed, and requires three years to come to maturity. It is, however, often pulled in eighteen months without injury to the quality ; the quantity only is smaller. A rich soil is necessary for its successful cultivation, and when the soil is im pregnated with alkaline matter, the root acquires a red colour ; in other cases it is yellow. The latter is preferred in Britain, from the long habit of using Dutch madder, which is of this colour ; but in France the; red sells at two francs per cwt. higher, being used for the Turkey-red dye. Madder does not deteriorate by keeping, provided it be kept dry. It contains three volatile colouring
matters,—madder purple, orange, and red. The latter is in the form of crystals, having a fine orange-red colour, and called alizarin. This is the substance which yields the Turkey-red dye. The slender creeping roots are the thickness of the little finger, very long and branching, provided with numerous articulations, and tough fibrils ; epidermis thin, pale brown ; bark and meditullium intensely red. The odour is weak and peculiar, taste bitter and styptic. According to Kuhlman's analysis, the roots contain red colouring matter (alizarin, Robiquet), yellow do. (xanthine, Kuhl.), woody fibre, mucilage, gum, sugar, bitter matter, resin, salts, albumen, etc. Alizarin occurs iu orange-red crystals, tasteless, inodorous, little soluble in cold, but soluble in boiling water, also in alcohol, ether, the fixed oils, and alkalies. The alcoholic solution is rose-coloured, the ethereal golden, the alkaline violet or blue. A solution of alum added to a solution of alizazin, and pre cipitated by potash, gives a rose-lake of the most charming tint. Xanthine is yellow, very soluble in water and alCohol, slightly in ether ; the solution passes to orange-red by contact with alkalies, to lemon-yellow by acids. It is devoid of odour, but has a sweetish-bitter taste. The red-colouring matter of madder tinges the bones, inilk, and mine of animals if fed on the roots. The great consumption of madder is as a dye stuff for giving a red colour to wool, silk, and cotton. In pharmacy the roots are sometimes used for colouring ointments.—O'Shaughnessy.