KERMES. An insect found in many parts of Asia and the south of Europe ; the Coccus aids of Linnaeus. They were long taken for the seeds of the tree on which they live, and hence called grains of kermes. They are used as a red and scarlet dye, but very inferior to cochi neal. Previously to the introduction of cochineal, by which it is now nearly wholly superseded, kermes had been the most esteemed drug for dyeing scarlet from a remote period of antiquity. Cloths dyed with kermes are of a deep-red co lor ; and though much inferior in bril liancy to the scarlet cloths dyed with real Mexican cochineal, they retain the color better and are less liable to stain. The tapestries of Brussels and other parts of Flanders, which have scarcely lost any thing of their original even after a lapse of 200 years, were all dyed with kermes.
The principal varieties of kermes are the coccus quercus, the coccus polonicus, the coccus fragarice, and the coccus uva ursi.
The coccus quercus insect lives in the south of Europe upon the kermes oak. The female has no wings, is of tho size of a small pea, of a brownish-red color, and is covered with a whitish dust. From the middle of May to the middle of June the eggs are collected, end ex posed to the vapor of vinegar, to prevent their incubation. A portion of eggs is left upon the tree for the maintenance of the brood. In the department of the Bouches-du-Rhone, one-half of the kermes crop is dried. It amounts an nually to about 60 quintals or ewts., and is warehoused at Avignon.
The kormes of Poland, or coccus polo aims, is found upon the roots of the scteranthus perennis and the scleran thus annum, in sandy soils of that country and the Ukraine. This species has the same properties as the preced ing; one pound of it, according to Wolfe, being capable of dyeing 10 pounds of wool ; but Hermstaedt could not obtain a fine color, although ho employed five times as much of it as of cochineal. The
Turks, Armenians, and Cossacks, dye with kermes their morocco leather, cloth, silk, as well as the manes and tails of their horses.
The kennes called coccus fragarice, is found principally in Siberia, upon the root of the common strawberry.
The coccus tiva urai is twice the size of the Polish kermes, and dyes with alum a fine red. It occurs in Russia.
Kermes is found not only upon the lycopodium conaplanatum in the Ukraine, but upon a great many other plants.
Good kermes is plump, of a deep-red color, of an agreeable smell, and a rough and pungent taste. Its coloring matter is soluble in water and alcohol; it be comes yellowish or brownish with acids, and violet or crimson with alkalies. Sul phate of iron blackens it. With alum it dyes a blood-red ; with copperas an agate gray ; with copperas and tartar, a lively gray ; with sulphate of copper and tartar, an olive green ; with tartar and salt of tin, a lively cinnamon yellow ; with more alum and tartar, a Mach; with sulphate of zinc and tartar, a violet.
Scarlet and crimson dyed with kermes, were called grain colors ; and they are reckoned to be more durable than those of cochineal, as is proved by the bril liancy of the old Brussels tapestry.
Hellot says that previous to dyeing in the kermes bath, he threw a handful of wool into it, in order to extract a black ish matter, which would have tarnished the color. The red caps of the Levant are dyed at Orleans with equal parts of kermes and madder ; and occasionally with the addition of some Brazil wood.
Cochineal and lac-dye have now nearly superseded the use of kermes as a tine torial 'substance, in England.