FUSTIC.

405

The colouring matter contained in the berries produces, upon mordantedcloth, colours analogous to those mentioned under quercitron ; the yellow isbrighter and more intense, but also more fugitive. In dyeing, as well as inprinting, the berries—either whole or previously bruised—are employed, or de-codtions more or less concentrated. When the berries are exhausted withboiling water, the first decofiions are of better quality, and yield purer coloursthan the second and third : the decodtions should be used when freshly made,because they spoil and turn “ greasy” as it is termed. The berries are alsoapplied in woollen dyeing, and for the colour known as stil de grain —a kind ofyellow lake—used as paint, especially for in-door work and theatrical decora-tions, and prepared by precipitating with milk of chalk a decodtion of theberries mixed with alum, either alone or with the addition of quercitron andfustic, and by gently drying the precipitate thus produced. The chief use ofthe berry-liquor is for steam- and so-called application-colours. The decodtionis often made with water and vinegar, as producing a liquor which keeps better.The chief use of this yellow pigment is in greens.

Fustic, Yellow Brazil Wood, Cuba Wood, Yellow Wood, Old Fustic.

Under the above names there is imported, from different tropical regions, thedecorticated wood of a tree botanically known as Morus tinctoria, belongingto the natural order of the Urticacere, and growing wild in some portions ofIndia, the hotter part of South America, Mexico, Jamaica, Cuba, Tobago,often attaining a height of 20 metres. The wood is found in large pieces,sawn straight at both ends, but otherwise rather of irregular shape, anddeprived of its bark. The wood is hard, but brittle and light; its colour is apale lemon-yellow.

The trade distinguishes several varieties, according to the locality of ex-portation, which is not always identical with the locality of growth. Amongthese varieties we notice—Cuba wood, considered the best; Tampico, gene-rally a little brighter-coloured than the preceding; yellow Brazil wood, colourvery bright, and usually more or less attacked by worms ; further, Porto Rico,Carthagena, Macarai'bo, St. Domingo, Jamaica, Tuspan, and India woods.The higher qualities are the hardest and also the least worm-eaten, of a lightyellow colour, with reddish veins. This wood is often sold ground-up orreduced to shavings.

The decodtions have the following behaviour with different reagents :—Alkalies and alkaline earths, deep orange-yellow colouration, without anyprecipitate : sulphuric, nitric, and oxalic acids produce a slight precipitate ;alum, a yellow precipitate; sulphate of peroxide of iron, first an olivecolouration, next a deep olive-black precipitate ;* chloride of tin, acetate oflead, and acetate of copper produce a yellow or brownish-yellow precipitate ;gelatin gives a yellow flocculent precipitate.

The colouring matters contained in this wood have been investigated byChevreul.f Wagner, + and, more recently, by Hlasiwetz and Pfaundler.|| These

* The idea of olive-black may perhaps seem preposterous to those of our readers who neversaw that fruit fully ripe, but in that state its colour is indeed deep greenish-black, with abronze reflection.

t “ Lemons de Chimie Appiiquee a la Teinture,” vol. ii., p. 150.

* “Journal fiir Prakt. Chem.,” vol. li., p. 82.

11 "Annalen der Chemie und Pharmacie,” vol. cxxvii., p. 351, and “ Comptes Renuus de1 Aeademie des Sciences de Vienne,’' June, 1864.