adagascar, the Isle of
France, and St. Domingo, an article of middling quality, but not in
large quantity. The _Indigofera disperma_, a plant cultivated in the
East Indies and America, grows higher than the preceding, is woody,
and furnishes a superior dye-stuff. The Guatamela indigo comes from
this species.

_Indigofera Anil_ grows in the same countries, and also in the West
Indies. The _Indigofera Argentea_, which flourishes in Africa, yields
little indigo, but it is of an excellent quality. _I.
pseudotinctoria_, cultivated in the East Indies, furnishes the best of
all. _I. glauca_ is the Egyptian and Arabian species. There are also
the _cinerea_, _erecta_ (a native of Guinea), _hirsuta_, _glabra_,
with red flowers, species common to the East, and several others.

The _Wrightia tinctoria_, of the East Indies, an evergreen, with white
blossoms, affords some indigo, as does the _Isatis tinctoria_, or,
Woad, in Europe, and the _Polygonum tinctorium_, with red flowers, a
native of China. _Baptisia tinctoria_ furnishes a blue dye, and is the
wild indigo of the United States.

SOURCES OF SUPPLY.--Indigo is at present grown for commercial purposes
in Bengal, and the other provinces of that Presidency, from the 20th
to the 30th deg. of north latitude; in the Province of Tinnevelly; in
the Madras Presidency; in Java, in the largest of the Philippine
islands, in Guatemala, Caraccas, Central America and Brazil. Bengal
is, however, the chief mart for indigo, and the quantity produced in
other places is comparatively inconsiderable. It is also still
cultivated in some of the West India islands, especially St. Domingo,
but not in large quantities. Indigo grows wild in several parts of
Palestine, but attention seems not to have been given to its
cultivation or collection. On most parts of the eastern and western
coasts of Africa, it is indigenous; at Sierra Leone, Natal, and other
places it is found abundant.

In our settlements of Honduras, Demerara, and various portions of the
American continent, it would amply reward the labor of the cultivator;
several inferior sorts of Indigofera being found there indigenous, and
only requiring care and culture to improve them.

The quality of indigo depends upon the species of the plant, its
ripeness, the soil and climate of its growth, and the mode of
manufacture. The East India, and Brazilian indigo arrives here packed
in chests, the Guatemala in ox-hides, called serons.

The indigo