Page:Treatise on Soap Making.djvu/40

24 I shall next take notice of an article peculiarly adapted to white soap-making, although equally good for yellow. It is the produce of the kingdom of Spain, at least the best is from that country, and called

BARILLA.

The description we meet with of this plant is as follows, viz.

Barilla or baritha, the name of a plant cultivated in Spain for its ashes, from which the purest kinds of alkali are obtained.

There are four plants which, in the early part of their growth, bear so strong a resemblance of each other, as would deceive any but the farmers and nice observers. These four are, barilla, gazul (or, as some call it, algazul), soza and salicornia, or salicor. They are all burnt to ashes, but applied to different uses, as being possessed of