Birch. _Betula alba._ Bark. Hop. _Humulus lupulus._ Stalks give a brownish red colour. Onion. Skins. Larch. Pine needles, collected in Autumn. Oak. _Quercus Robur._ Bark. Red currants, with alum. Walnut. Root and green husks of nut. Water Lily. _Nymphaea alba._ Root. Whortleberry. _Vaccinium Myrtillus._ Young shoots, with nut galls. Dulse. (Seaweed.) Lichens. PLANTS WHICH DYE PURPLE Byrony. _Byronia dioica._ Berries. Damson. Fruit, with alum. Dandelion. _Taraxacum Dens-leonis._ Roots. Danewort. _Sambucus Ebulus._ Berries. Deadly nightshade. _Atropa Belladonna._ Elder. _Sambucus nigra._ Berries, with alum, a violet; with alum and salt, a lilac colour. Sundew. _Drosera._ Whortleberry or blaeberry. _Vaccinium myrtillus._ It contains a blue or purple dye which will dye wool and silk without mordant. PLANTS WHICH DYE BLACK Alder. _Alnus glutinosa._ Bark, with copperas. Blackberry. _Rubus fruticosus._ Young shoots, with salts of iron. Dock. _Rumex._ Root. Elder. Bark, with copperas. Iris. _Iris Pseudacorus._ Root. Meadowsweet. _Spirea Ulmaria._ Oak. Bark and acorns. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote A: "On boiling sloes, their juice becomes red, and the red dye which it imparts to linen changes, when washed with soap, into a bluish colour, which is permanent."] [Footnote B: "Sawwort, which grows abundantly in meadows, affords a very fine pure yellow with alum mordant, which greatly resembles weld yellow. It is extremely permanent."] [Footnote C: "The leaves of the sweet willow, _salix pentandra_, gathered at the end of August and dried in the shade, afford, if boiled with about one thirtieth potash, a fine yellow colour to wool, silk and thread, with alum basis. All the 5 species of Erica or heath growing on this island are capable of affording yellow much like those from the dyer's broom; also the bark and shoots of the Lombardy poplar, _populus pyramidalis_. The three leaved hellebore, _helleborus trifolius_, for dyeing wood yellow, is used in Canada. The seeds of the purple trefoil, lucerne, and fenugreek, the flowers of the French marigold, the camomile, _antemis tinctoria_, the ash, _fraxinus excelsior_, fumitory, _fumaria officinalis_, dye wool yellow." "The American golden rod, _solidago canadensis_, affords a very beautiful yellow to wool, silk and cotton upon an aluminous basis." _Bancroft._] CHAPTER IV THE LICHEN DYES