ANST - natural dyeing ... reds & purples

[jhartel]

Stefan wrote something akin to:
> This makes me curious. Are there prickly-pear cactus varieties native  
>to Europe? What about other cactuses? 

 I don't know about that but I am positive that the Spaniards saw the
 rich colours the Indians in Mexico were producing and brought it back
to Erupoe.  I read an acocunt of it once but memory fails me now.  If I
locate the info I'll send it.
 
> If so, what did the medieval Europeans make with them? What about the
> Middle East or Africa? Did any of these products get transported to >Europe?
 
 I remeber reading that the Europeans got Indigo, madder and other
 dyestuffs from across the globe.  None was indiginous to Europe or even
 England.
 
 Moriel**
 [who reads lots but hates to rewrite it down for the sake of
 documentation...]
============================================================================
Go to http://lists.ansteorra.org/lists.html to perform mailing list tasks.