Domestic Encyclopædia (1802)/Lavender-thrift

LAVENDER-THRIFT, or Sea Lavender, Statice Limonium, L. an indigenous perennial plant, growing on the sea-shore; in salt-marshes; and the fissures or clefts of rocks, near the sea-coast: it is in flower from July to September.

This vegetable deserves the attention of tanners, on account of its red, astringent root, called, by the Russians, Kermek; and from which they prepare that valuable kind of leather distinguished by its peculiarly strong, though not ungrateful odour, and on the Continent termed Juften.—Guldenstaedt, in his Travels through Russia, observes, that on the coast near Azof, he met with a tan-work in which the root of the Sea-Lavender was employed in dressing the hides of oxen, both for the celebrated Russia, and common sole-leather. The roots are previously dried in the sun, and finely pulverized: next, the hides are cleaned with ashes obtained from the roots of the oak, and suffered to lie a month in this preparatory lixivium; after which they are immersed into the liquor made of the pounded roots before mentioned. He adds, that there is not the least doubt ot this root proving a complete substitute for the more expensive oak-bark.