SAFFLOWER.

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crystallised soda of commerce dissolved in water), and in this solution theyarn or fabric to be dyed is immersed ; a slight excess of lime-juice is added,to cause the precipitation and adhesion of the carthamin to the cotton.Since silk and wool strongly attradl the yellow colour, it is essential to elimi-nate that substance entirely in order to ensure the full beauty of the safflowershades. For that purpose the method of preparation already described forcarthamin is made use of, and the substance precipitated 'om-cotton-wool isfrequently submitted to a second purification. Frequently the woollen andsilk tissues are first grounded (dyed a first time) with annatto or orchil, previousto the dyeing with safflower.

The goodness and quality of safflower is estimated by a dyeing process witha known weight of cotton : about 4 ounces of safflower will dye 1 lb. of cottoncloth light pink; 8 ounces will dye a full rose-pink; and from 12 ounces to1 lb. will dye it a full crimson. In order to take up this quantity the cottonmust be several times dyed in fresh solutions of the colouring matter. Nomordant is used for safflower, since none of the mordants known eitherincrease the affinity of the cloth for the colouring matter or give it anygreater stability.

The quantity of safflower required to dye silk is nearly the same as forcotton, and the process is precisely similar. There is one peculiarity aboutthe dyeing with safflower which is worthy of special notice : in most othercases the dyer is generally careful to have his dye-wares in a perfectly solublestate for dyeing, but here the exceptional method of precipitating the colouringmatter from its solution, before the goods are entered for dyeing, is practised.It is curious to speculate how the coloured particles can be so rapidly and socompletely attra&ed by the fibre as is found to be the case in practice.

The colours safflower yields, although the most beautiful and delicateshades which the art of the dyer can produce, have the disadvantage of beingvery unstable : nothing is easier than to detedl safflower colours upon fabrics ;the rose, pink, or crimson hue is at once turned yellow by a single drop ofalkali, and is destroyed by any further washing; this property is actually madeuse of now and then as a discharge, so as to produce a yellow pattern upon apink ground; weak acids do not affedl the colours, but chlorine and sulphurousacid destroy the colour at once.

Practical men generally prefer to extradt the red colouring matter from saf-flower—or, as it is technically called, to bleed it—by several successive appli-cations of the solution of carbonate of soda, using weaker lye at first andstronger ones afterwards. If the resulting liquids are kept separate, it willbe found that the first extradl yields the brightest and purest colour, whilst thesubsequent solutions are progressively inferior. This principle has been takenadvantage of in dyeing, the goods being grounded with the last-obtained, ormost impure, carthamin, and finally “ topped ” or finished with the first, orpure, portion of the colour. In this manner an unrivalled “bloom” andbrilliance are obtained. The best quality of liquid carthamin, or extradl ofsafflower, may be known by its colour approaching a scarlet. If it be crimsonthe colouring matter is in a less minute state of division, and the shades’ pro-ducedwill be less bright.

The consumption of safflower has been lessened by the introduction ofsaffranin, which is, in some works on dyeing, designated safilower-substitute.