Laudanum is a liquid preparation from opium and spirit of wine; and is used for most of the same purposes to which opium is applied. Its effects, as a poison, may be counteracted in the same manner as those of opium.
172. ARNATTO, or ANNOTTA, is a red dyeing drug, generally imported in lumps wrapped up in leaves, and produced from the pulp of the seed-vessels of a shrub (Bixa orellana) which grows spontaneously in the East and West Indies.
This shrub is usually seven or eight feet high, and has heart-shaped and pointed leaves. The flowers, which have each ten large peach-coloured petals, appear in loose clusters at the ends of the branches, and produce oblong and somewhat hairy pods.
The seed-vessels of the arnatto shrub are, in appearance, somewhat like those of the chesnut ([235]). They each contain from thirty to forty seeds, enveloped in a kind of pulp (of red colour and unpleasant smell), which is not much unlike the paint called red lead, when mixed with oil. In the West Indies the method of extracting the pulp, and preparing it for sale, is to boil it, and the seeds which are mixed with it, in clear water, until the latter are perfectly extricated. They are then taken out, and the pulp is allowed to subside to the bottom of the water; this is drawn off, and the sediment is distributed into shallow vessels, and gradually dried in the shade until it is sufficiently hard to be worked into lumps or masses for sale.
Arnatto, though made in the West Indies, is an object of no great commercial importance; the demand for it not being sufficient to give much encouragement to its culture. It is now chiefly prepared by the Spaniards in South America, and for the purpose principally of mixing with chocolate, to which, in their opinion, it gives a pleasing colour and great medicinal virtue, as well as an improved flavour. The chief consumption of arnatto in England depends upon painters and dyers; and it is supposed that Scott's nankeen dye is nothing but arnatto dissolved in alkaline ley. This drug is sometimes used by the Dutch farmers to give a rich colour to butter; and the double Gloucester and several other kinds of cheese are coloured with it. Poor people occasionally use it instead of saffron.
In countries where the arnatto shrubs are found, the roots are employed by the inhabitants in broth; and they answer all the purposes of the pulp, though in an inferior degree. The bark is occasionally manufactured into ropes; and pieces of the wood are used by the Indians to procure fire by friction.
173. The LIME or LINDEN-TREE is a British forest tree (Tilia europæa), distinguished by its heart-shaped and serrated leaves of bright green colour, and by its berries or seed-vessels, having each four cells and one bud.
The blossoms are whitish, in small clusters, and have a yellowish green floral leaf nearly as long as the fruit-stalk, and attached to it for about half its length.
No one can have passed a grove of lime-trees, in the month of July, without having been charmed with the perfume which, at this season, is emitted by the flowers. They are a great resort of bees, and supply those insects with materials for their best honey. Whether fresh or dried, they easily ferment, and a fine flavoured spirit may be distilled from them. The wood is close-grained, though soft, light, and smooth. It is much used by carvers and turners; and is in great request for the boards of leather-cutters. When properly burnt it makes an excellent charcoal for gunpowder, and for painters.
If the bark be softened in water, the fibrous inner part may be separated: of this the Russians manufacture fishing-nets, mats, shoes, and rustic garments; and ropes and other cordage, made from it, are stated to be so remarkably strong and elastic, that, in this respect, they are superior to iron chains. In some countries the leaves are dried as a winter food for sheep and goats; and, from these and the bark, a smooth but coarse brown paper may be manufactured. An inferior kind of sugar may be made from the sap; and the seeds, by pressure, yield a sweet and pleasant oil.