Fustic

Fustic. Two dyes are known by the name of fustic: - (1) Young Fustic and (2) Old Fustic. The former of these yields but fugitive colours, and at the present time is not much used. The latter is, however, largely used in woollen and silk dyeing. With a "tin or stannous mordant" it gives a bright yellow, while by use of bichromate of potash, copper sulphate, etc., old gold, olive, and other shades may be obtained. It does not find much application, however, in the dyeing of cotton fabrics. Old Fustic is the yellow wood of Madura tinctoria, a large tree belonging to the Mulberry family, native to the West Indies and tropical America. Great Britain imports less than a thousand tons annually, either as chips, ground, or as extract. The smaller but equally yellow-wooded branches of the entirely distinct Rhus Cotinus of South Europe, which is known as the Zante or Venetian sumach, or, from the feathery branches of its inflorescence, as the wig-tree, are similarly employed under the name Young Fustic, being once supposed to be twigs of Madura.