and that it was of importance in the first instance that its identity and class should be accurately ascertained, I procured specimens of its fructification, and deposited them in the rich and extensively useful collection of my friend Sir Joseph Banks.  In a paper on the Asclepiadeae, highly interesting to botanical science, communicated by Mr. Robert Brown (who has lately explored the vegetable productions of New Holland and other parts of the East) to the Wernerian Society of Edinburgh, and printed in their Transactions, he has done me the honour of naming the genus to which this plant belongs, MARSDENIA, and this particular species Marsdenia tinctoria.*

(Footnote. 2.  M. caule volubili, foliis cordatis ovato-oblongis acuminatis glabriusculis basi antice glandulosis, thyrsis lateralibus, fauce barbata.  Tarram akkar Marsd.  Sumat. page 78 edition 2 Hab.  In insula Sumatra. (v.s. in Herb.  Banks.))

KASUMBA.

Under the name of kasumba are included two plants yielding materials for dyeing, but very different from each other.  The kasumba (simply) or kasumba jawa, as it is sometimes called, is the Carthamus tinctorius, of which the flowers are used to produce a saffron colour, as the name imports.  The kasumba kling or galuga is the Bixa orellana, or arnotto of the West Indies.  Of this the capsule, about an inch in length, is covered with soft prickles or hair, opens like a bivalve shell, and contains in its cavities a dozen or more seeds, the size of grape-stones, thickly covered with a reddish farina, which is the part that constitutes the dye.

Sapang, the Brazil-wood, (Caesalpinia sappan), whether indigenous or not, is common in the Malayan countries.  The heart of this being cut into chips, steeped for a considerable time in water, and then boiled, is used for dying here, as in other countries.  The cloth or thread is repeatedly dipped in this liquid, and hung to dry between each wetting till it is brought to the shade required.  To fix the colour alum is added in the boiling.

Of the tree called bangkudu in some districts, and in others mangkudu (Morinda umbellata) the outward parts of the root, being dried, pounded, and boiled in water, afford a red dye, for fixing which the ashes procured from the stalks of the fruit and midribs of the leaves of the coconut are employed.  Sometimes the bark or wood of the sapang tree is mixed with these roots.  It is to be observed that another species of bangkudu, with broader leaves (Morinda citrifolia) does not yield any colouring matter, but is, as I apprehend, the tree commonly planted in the Malayan peninsula and in Pulo Pinang as a support to the pepper-vine.

RED-WOOD.

Ubar is a red-wood resembling the logwood (haematoxylon) of Honduras, and might probably be employed for the same purpose.  It is used by the natives in tanning twine for fishing nets, and appears to be the okir or Tanarius major of Rumphius, Volume 3 page 192, and Jambolifera rezinoso of Lour.  Fl.  C. C. page 231.  Their black dye is commonly made from the coats of the mangostin-fruit and of the kataping (Terminalia catappa).  With this the blue cloth from the west of India is changed to a black, as usually worn by the Malays of Menangkabau.  It is said to be steeped in mud in order to fix the colour.