MADDER.

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the root of which is either dried and bruised, or else used green,lias a weak, square, jointed stem; if conducted by any rod, willrise to the height of several feet: but as it is in many soilsindigenous and grows wild, it crawls along the ground. Ateach joint there are five or six leaves, about three incheslong, almost an inch broad in the middle, and pointed atboth ends. The upper side of the leaf is smooth; but themiddle fibre of the under side is armed with rough adhesivehairs, or prickles; and some of the same kind may be foundupon the stem. On this account, the leaves, which dropannually, adhere readily to other bodies, like the asperugo.The branches, which, in June, bear flowers divided into fouryellow leaves, proceed from the joints. The fruit, a kind ofberry, which, towards the time of its ripening, is first of abrownish colour, then a black, yields a round seed. Theroots are sometimes of the thickness of one’s finger, growdeep in the earth, are surrounded by many small fibres, havea yellow pith, covered with black bark or rind. This plantgrows wild in the Levant, Siberia, Tartary, Italy , severalparts of France, England, and Switzerland . The cultivatedkind is well known in many countries, where it is propa-gated to considerable advantage.

Non Strahlenberg says, this plant, which in the Germantongue is called grapp, grows plentifully in Russia , where itis as good as that cultivated in gardens in Germany . It isused by dyers to dye such a red as is used for soldiers’clothes. There aiso grows in Siberia , on the banks of theA Tarim, a herb or root they call marana irava, which like-wise gives a red colour, but will not bear with alum. Be-sides this, near the city of Crasnogahr, and in other places,a root is found, which gives a reddish tincture. The Tartars call it bada tussu; and the common people tincture theirtea-water with it, or use it frequently alone for that herb.But it is somewhat astringent. Near the city of Tobolskoi,grows a herb, which the Tartars call kna, with which theirwomen colour their nails red ; it is believed to be the samewith tire bastard henna, found in Persia .

The description of Dioscorides , when compared with thepreceding of Beckmann, is discovered to agree well with it.He calls it ereuthodanon ; his description will be found tobe a counterpart of the foregoing, in its most material points,lie even compares “ its long square stem, armed with manyhooks,” to that of asperugo; and he tells us, that the leavesstand in tlfe form of a star round the joints. The fruit wasat first green, then red, and lastly black. “ The thin longroots,” he adds, “ serve for dyeing; and, on that account, the