SAFFLOWER.

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also in some parts of Spain, Southern Germany, Italy, Hungary, Persia,China, the Sunda Islands, South America, and Southern Russia. It resemblesthe thistle: the petals of the plant are, when dried, what is known assafflower, of which the following varieties occur in commerce :—

Egyptian Safflower .—Met with as strongly compressed, somewhat moist,deep red-brown cakes, of a peculiar odour. It is packed in coarse canvasbags, weighing from 320 to 350 kilos. It is cultivated partly near Cairo,partly in Upper Egypt, and is chiefly imported into Trieste, Venice,Leghorn, and Marseilles.

Spanish Safflower .—A pleasant-smelling, deep red, loose mass, very likesaffron.

Indian Safflower .—Occurs in commerce in the shape of small, flattened,circular cakes, internally rose-red. It is packed in good canvas, exter-nally covered by wicker-work, the packages weighing from 75 to 150 kilos.

Batavia Safflower .—Deep red, well-developed flowers, pressed in bales.

The Egyptian kind is the richest in colouring matter, containing nearlytwice as much as that from other countries; yet the Indian and Chinesesafflowers are highly esteemed. The goodness of this substance may bejudged already by its external appearance, which should be of a fiery red ; adull redness is a proof of bad preparation.

Safflower contains three distindt colouring matters, viz., two yellow prin-ciples, one of which is soluble in pure cold water or water slightly acidulated;the other is only soluble in an alkaline liquor: thirdly, a red colouring matter,carthamic acid, the only useful constituent. The quantity of the yellow colourinsoluble in water varies in the inverse ratio of that of carthamin (carthamicacid).

According to M. Salvetat, safflower contains—Yellow colour, soluble inwater, from 26 to 36 per cent; carthamin, from 0*3 to o*6 per cent; extractivematter, 3*6 to 6‘5 per cent; albumen, from 1*5 to 8‘0 per cent; waxy matter,0'6 to 1*5 per cent; cellulose, 38*4 to 56'o per cent: further, some pedtic com-pounds and silica, from 1 to 8'4 per cent; oxides of iron and alumina, 0'4 tor6 per cent; oxide of manganese, o'i to 0-5 per cent.

On treating safflower with cold water, the yellow colouring matter, the salts,and albumen are removed. If the dye ware is treated with water acidulatedwith acetic acid, filtered, and first acetate of lead and next ammonia is added,the yellow colour is precipitated along with the lead salt. This precipitate iswashed, decomposed by means of dilute sulphuric acid, the sulphate of leadseparated by filtration, the liquid next evaporated in a retort, preferably in anatmosphere of carbonic acid, but in every case as much as possible withexclusion of air; the residue afterwards treated with alcohol, and thissolution evaporated to dryness, yields, on being again treated with water,the yellow colour, which, however, becomes rapidly changed by contact withair « The aqueous solution is acid to test-paper, has a bitter taste, but theyellow matter it contains does not possess any particular interest. Its elimi-nation from the safflower intended to be used as a dye material is of greatimportance, since the beauty of the colour is impaired by the presence of thisyellow matter, especially if animal fibres are to be dyed with the ware.

Car. hamin, or carthamic acid, may be prepared in a pure state by makinguse of its insolubility in water and solubility in alkaline liquids, such as solution