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To dye cottons and linens black

The cloth, previously dyed blue, is steeped for 24 hours in a decoction of nut-galls. A bath is prepared containing acetate of iron, formed by saturating acetous acid with brown oxide of iron: into this bath the cloth is put in small quantities at a time, wrought with the hand for a quarter of an hour; then wring out, and aired again; wrought in a fresh quantity of the bath, and afterwards aired. These alternate processes are repeated till the colour wanted is given a decoction of alder bark is usually mixed with the liquor containing the nut-galls.

To dye wool, &c brown.

Brown, or fawn colour, though in fact, a compound, is usually ranked among the simple colours, because it is applied to cloth by a single process Various substances are used for brown dyes.

Walnut-peels, or the green covering of the walnut, when first separated, are white internally, but soon assume a brown, or even a black colour, on exposure to the air. They readily yield their colouring matter to water. They are usually kept in large casks, covered with water, for above a year before they are used. To dye wool brown with them, nothing more is necessary, than to steep the cloth in a decoction of them till it has acquired the wished-for colour. The depth of the shade is proportional to the strength of the decoction.

The root of the walnut-tree contains the same colouring matter, but in smaller quantity. The bark of the birch also, and many other trces, may be used for the same purpose.