Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057345).pdf/26

 18 HAR made into pickles, and otherwise used for seasoning food. There are two distinct principles in the pods, one of which is an ethereal oil, and which constitutes the real stimulating principle. The bruised capsules are employed as powerful rubefacients, being reckoned preferable to sinapisms in sore throats. They are also given, with the best results, as a gargle. Mixed with Peruvian bark, they are given internally in typhus and in- termittent fevers, and dropsy. Chillies are a principal ingredient in all curries in India. By pouring hot vinegar upon the fruits, all the essential qualities are preserved, which cannot be effected by drying them, owing to their oleaginous properties. This chillie vinegar is an excellent stomachic, imparting a fine favour to fish and meats. A great quantity is exported to England, especially from the West Indies, the price of chillies in London being from 158. to 258. the cwt."- Drury's Useful Plants of India, page 3. " The Cayenne pepper is prepared in the following manner in the West Indies: the ripe fruits are dried in the sun, and then in an oven, after bread is baked, in an earthen or stone pot, with flour between the strata of pods. When quite dry they are cleaned from the flour and beaten or ground to fine powder. To every ounce of this a pound of wheat-flour is added, and it is made into small cakes with leaven. These are baked again that they may be as dry and hard as biscuit, and then are beaten into powder and sifted. It is then fit for use as pepper, or for being packed in a compressed state, and so as to exclude air, for exportation." -Drury's Useful Plants of India, page 112. “Carthamus tinctorius (Kusum Barre).- Description : annual, 1-2 feet; stem erect, cylindrical, branching near the summit; leaves oval, sessile, much animated, somewhat spiny; heads of flowers enclosed in a roundish spiny involucre; flowers large, deep orange. Flowers in November, Decem- ber.--(Roxb. Fl. Ind., iii. 409. Peninsula, cultivated). " Economic uses.--The dried flowers, which are very like saffron in ар- pearance, have been employed to adulterate that drug. They contain a colouring principle called carthamitic acid, used by dyers, and constituting the basis of rouge. The flowers are used by the Chinese to give rose, scarlet, purple, and violet colours to their silks. They are thrown into an infusion of alkali and left to macerate. The colours are afterwards drawn out by the addition of lemon juice in various proportions, or of any other vegetable acid. "The flowers are imported to England from many parts of Europe and from Egypt for dyeing and painting. They are also used for cakes and toys; but if used too much they have purgative qualities. Poultry fatten on the seeds. An oil of a light-yellow colour is procured from the seeds. It is used for lamps and for culinary purposes. The seeds contain about 28 per cent. of oil. The dried florets yield a beautiful colouring matter which attaches itself without a mordant. It is chiefly used for colouring cotton, and produces various shades of pink, rose, crimson, scarlet, &c. In Bangalore silk is dyed with it; but the dye is fugitive, and will not bear washing An alkaline extract precipitated by an acid will give a