Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057345).pdf/27

HAR 19 fine rose colour to silks or cotton. The flower is gathered and rubbed down into powder, and sold in this state. When used for dyeing it is put into a cloth and washed in cold water for a long time, to remove a yellow colouring matter. It is then boiled, and yields the pink dyeing liquid. The Chinese safflower is considered superior to the Indian one. In Assam, Dacca, and Rájpútána it is cultivated for exportation. About 300 tons are annually shipped from Calcutta, valued in England from £6 to £7-10 per cwt. That from Bombay is least esteemed. “ The mode of collecting the flowers and preparing the dye, as practised in Europe, where the plant is much cultivated, is as follows:—The moment the florets which form the compound flowers begin to open, they are gathered in succession without waiting for the whole to expand, since, when allowed to remain till fully blown, the beauty of the colour is very much faded. As the flowers are collected they are dried in the shade. This work must be carefully performed, for if gathered in wet weather, or badly dried, the colour will be much deteriorated. These flowers contain two kinds of colouring matter—the one yellow, which is soluble in water ; the other red, which, being of a resinous nature, is insoluble in water, but soluble in alkaline carbonates. The first is never converted to any use, as it dyes only dull shades of colour; the other is a beautiful rose-red, capable of dyeing every shade, from the palest rose to a cherry-red. It is therefore requisite, before these flowers can be made available, to sepa- rate the valueless from the valuable colour; and since the former only is soluble in water, this operation is matter of little difficulty. “ The flowers are tied in a sack and laid in a trough, through which a slender stream of water is constantly flowing; while, still further to pro- mote the solution of the yellow colouring matter, a man in the trough treads the sack, and subjects every part to the action of the water. When this flows without receiving any yellow tinge in its passage, the washing is discontinued, and the, safilower, if not wanted for immediate use, is made into cakes, which are known in commer under the ame of strip- ped safflower. " It is principally used for dyeing silk, producing poppy-red, bright orange, cherry, rose, or flesh colour, according to the alterative employed in combination. These are alum, potash, tartaric acid, or sulphuric acid. The fixed oil which the plant yields is used by the native practitioners in rheumatic and paralytic complaints. The seeds are reckoned laxative, and have been employed in dropsy, and the dried flowers in Jamaica are given in jaundice. — Vegetable Substances, Jury Rept., Simmonds,"w. Drury's Useful Plants of India, pages 116-17.. "Ptychotis ajowan (Ajuxin). Medical'uses. The seeds have an aromatic smell and a warm pungent taste ; they are much used by the natives for medicinal and culinary purposes. They are small plants of the umbelli. ferous order, and are to be met with in every market of India. (Roxb.) "The virtues of the seeds reside in a volatile oil. They are stimulant, carminative, and antispasmodic, andare of much value in atonic dyspepsia