Chapter 3

BRITISH DYE PLANTS

On the introduction of foreign dye woods and other dyes during the 17th and 18th centuries, the native dye plants were rapidly displaced, except in some out of the way places such as the Highlands and parts of Ireland. Some of these British dye plants had been used from early historical times for dyeing. Some few are still in use in commercial dye work (pear, sloe, and a few others); but their disuse was practically completed during the 19th century, when the chemical dyes ousted them from the market.

The majority of these plants are not very important as dyes, and could not probably now be collected in sufficient quantities. Some few, however, are important, such as woad, weld, heather, walnut, alder, oak, some lichens; and many of the less important ones would produce valuable colours if experiments were made with the right mordants. Those which have been in use in the Highlands are most of them good dyes. Among these are Ladies Bedstraw, whortleberry, yellow iris, bracken, bramble, meadow sweet, alder, heather and many others. The yellow dyes are most plentiful and many of these are good fast colours. Practically no good red, in quantity, is obtainable. Madder is the only reliable red dye among plants, and that is no longer indigenous in England. Most of the dye plants require a preparation of the material to be dyed, with alum, or some other mordant, but a few, such as Barbary and some of the lichens, are substantive dyes, and require no mordant.

PLANTS WHICH DYE RED

Birch. _Betula alba._ Fresh inner bark.

Bed-straw. _Gallium boreale._ Roots.

Common Sorrel. _Rumex acetosa._ Roots.

Dyer's Woodruff. _Asperula tinctoria._ Roots.

Evergreen Alkanet. _Anchusa sempervirens._

Gromwell. _Lithospermum arvense._

Lady's Bedstraw. _Gallium verum._ Roots.

Marsh Potentil. _Potentilla Comarum._ Roots.

Potentil. _Potentilla Tormentilla._ Roots.

Wild Madder. _Rubia peregrina._

PLANTS WHICH DYE BLUE

Devil's Bit. _Scabiosa succisa._ Leaves prepared like woad.

Dog's Mercury. _Mercurialis perennis._

Elder. _Sambucus nigra._ Berries.

Privet. _Ligustrum vulgare._ Berries with alum and salt.

Red bearberry. _Arctostaphylos Uva-Ursi._

Sloe.[A] _Prunus communis._ Fruit.

Whortleberry or Blaeberry. _Vaccinium Myrtillus._ Berries.

Woad. _Isatis tinctoria._

Yellow Iris. _Iris Pseudacorus._ Roots.

PLANTS WHICH DYE YELLOW

Agrimony. _Agrimonia Eupatoria._

Ash. _Fraxinus excelsior._ Fresh inner bark.

Barberry. _Berberis vulgaris._ Stem and root.

Birch. Leaves.

Bog Asphodel. _Narthecium ossifragum._

Bog Myrtle or Sweet Gale. _Myrica Gale._

Bracken. _Pteris aquilina._ Roots. Also young tops.

Bramble. _Rubus fructicosus._

Broom. _Sarothammus Scoparius._

Buckthorn. _Rhamnus frangula_ and _R. cathartica._ Berries and Bark.

Common dock. _Rumex obtusifolius._ Root.

Crab Apple. _Pyrus Malus._ Fresh inner bark.

Dyer's Greenwood. _Genista tinctoria._ Young shoots and leaves.

Gorse. _Ulex Europaeus._ Bark, flowers and young shoots.

Heath. _Erica vulgaris._ With Alum.

Hedge stachys. _Stachys palustris._

Hop. _Humulus lupulus._

Hornbeam. _Carpinus Betulus._ Bark.

Kidney Vetch. _Anthyllis Vulnararia._

Ling. _Caluna vulgaris._

Marsh Marigold. _Caltha palustris._

Marsh potentil. _Potentilla Comarum._

Meadow Rue. _Thalictrum flavum._

Nettle. _Urtica._ With Alum.

Pear. Leaves.

Plum. "

Polygonum Hydropiper.

Polygonum Persecaria.

Poplar. Leaves.

Privet. _Ligustrum vulgare._ Leaves.

S. John's Wort. _Hypericum perforatum._

Sawwort.[B] _Serratula tinctoria._

Spindle tree. _Euonymus Europaeus._

Stinking Willy, or Ragweed. _Senecio Jacobaea._

Sundew. _Drosera._

Teasel. _Dipsacus Sylvestris._

Way-faring tree. _Viburnum lantana._ Leaves.

Weld. _Reseda luteola._

Willow.[C] Leaves.

Yellow Camomile. _Anthemis tinctoria._

Yellow Centaury. _Chlora perfoliata._

Yellow Corydal. _Corydalis lutea._

PLANTS WHICH DYE GREEN

Elder. _Sambucus nigra._ Leaves with alum.

Flowering reed. _Phragmites communis._ Flowering tops, with copperas.

Larch. Bark, with alum.

Lily of the valley. _Convalaria majalis._ Leaves.

Nettle. _Urtica dioica_ and _U. Urens._

Privet. _Ligustrum vulgare._ Berries and leaves, with alum.

PLANTS WHICH DYE BROWN

Alder. _Alnus glutinosa._ Bark.

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._]