GUM-LAC .

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4. Java cochineal is imported into Amsterdam and Rotterdam diredt by theNetherlands Society for Trade. It is packed in small tinned iron boxes(square canisters), placed inside stout wooden cases, and varying in weightfrom 40 to 60 kilos. This cochineal is reddish coloured ; its tinctorial valueis below that of the zacatilla kinds, but better than the wild cochineal. Thequantity annually brought to Europe is considerable, and it is owing to thecultivation in Java that the price of this article has greatly fallen.*

Animal or Vegetable Kermes, Scarlet Grain, Oak Cochineal (Coccusilicis). —The oak kermes or green oak with prickly leaves ( Qacrcus coccifera)is a tree which is found in large numbers in the South of France, Spain,Italy, the Greek Islands, and in Candia. The kermes, an insedt livingupon the leaves of this tree, is gathered by the peasantry, and is so littleknown at present in England that when occasionally (yet rarely, and atgreat intervals of time) a parcel of this substance arrives in London hardlyany of the brokers recognise it. It is more extensively used in France. Nocolouring substance or other material used in dyeing possesses so great anantiquity; it was known in the time of Moses, and is mentioned by itsHebrew name Tola. Its name, Coccus, frequently occurs in the Greek andLatin writers. Kermes, like cochineal, was supposed to be berries or grains,and colours dyed with them were said to be grained or engrained , and sincethe kermes colours were fast and durable the term grained expanded in itssignification, and meant a fast colour whether dyed with kermes or not. Butkermes are inse&s, and the word is Arabic, signifying “ little worm,” and inthe middle ages they were called 'Vermiculi, and the cloth dyed with themVermiculata , whence through the French we have vermillion, a word nowemployed as the name for one of the compounds of sulphur and mercury.The term crimson is also derived from kermes through the Italian andFrench languages. Kermes when alive on the trees is fixed to the twigseither in groups or alone. It appears as if forming bluish berries, coveredwith a whitish powder; it occurs in commerce as pale reddish brown grains,which colouration is due to the vinegar used for killing them. Kermesmay now be considered as having merely a historical interest, and need not,therefore, further occupy our attention.

Gum-lac or Resin-lac.—The substance known as gum- or stick-lac is aproduct of India, which, when having undergone some preparations, is knownas lac-dye, lac-lake, or simply lac. It is derived from the Coccus lacca orFicus , an insedl which lives on the young twigs of various kinds of trees,more especially the Ficus religiosa and Indica, the Rhammis jujuba, andothers. The unprepared material, stick-lac, is a kind of resinous crustadhering to the twigs, and is the produdt of the digestive organs of a small-sized insedt, no bigger than a pin’s head ; its body is oval shaped, somewhatflattened, and composed of twelve red-coloured rings ; its antennae are half aslong as its body, which is at its posterior part provided with two divergenthairs. These insedts appear in November and December, when they walkabout for a short time on the twigs, and in January they fasten themselvesto the fleshy succulent portions of the young branches. Gradually the

* Girardin, “Traite de Chimie Appliquee,” vol. ii., p. 553. Persoz, “ Impression des Tissus,”i°l- i-, p. 509. Thitiry de Menonville, “ Traite de la Culture du Nopal, et de l’Education de laCochenille,” 2 vole, in 8vo„ Paris. 1787.