The Universal Herbal: Indigofera Anil; Wild Indigo.

The Universal Herbal;
or botanical, medical and agricultural dictonary.
Containing an account of All the known Plants in the World, arranged according to the Linnean system. Specifying the uses to which they are or may be applied, whether as food, as medicine, or in the arts and manufactures.
With the best methods of propagation, and the most recent agricultural improvements.
collected from indisputable Authorities.
Adapted to the use of the farmer - the gardener - the husbandman - the botanist - the florist - and country housekeepers in general.
By Thomas Green.
Vol. I
Liverpool.
Printed at the Caxton Press by Henri Fisher.
Printer in Ordinary to His Majesty.
1824Leaves pinnate, lanceolate; racemes short; stem suffruticose. This plant has the habit and appearance of the next species. Mr. Miller says it grows to the height of five or six feet, and that being a much larger plant it will afford a greater quantity of indigo from the same compass of ground than any of the other species, especially if cut before the stalks grow woody; and that it will also grow on poorer land. Browne says it is a native of the East Indies, and also very common in Jamaica, growing wild in all the savannas, where it had undoubtedly been cultivated in former times; for there we often meet with some of those indigo works which were then used, remaining very perfect to this day. This is the hardiest plant belonging to the genus; it grows very luxuriantly, even in the driest savanna lands; and although it does not yield the greatest quantity of pulp, the dye extracted from it is generally the best, of a fine copperish cast and a close grain.