P. H. GOSSE, _del._ LEIGHTON, BROS.
LIMPET. PURPLE. SLIT-LIMPET.
]
My readers are, I dare say, familiar with the pretty myth which
professes to embody the discovery of the purple dye. The Tyrian
Hercules was one day walking with his sweetheart along the shore,
followed by her lap-dog, when the playful animal seized a shell that
had just been washed up on the beach. Its lips were presently dyed with
a gorgeous purple tint, which was traceable to a juice that was pressed
out of the shell-fish. The lady was charmed with the colour, and longed
to have a dress of it; and, as wishes under such circumstances are
laws, the enamoured hero set himself to gratify her, and soon succeeded
in extracting and applying the dye, which afterwards became so famous.
I have elsewhere[22] recorded my own experiments on the stain yielded
by the _Purpura_ before us, with the remarkable changes through which
it passes before the sunlight fully brings out the colour. The use
of cochineal makes us independent of molluscan dyes, and the matter
is merely one of antiquarian interest, or a question of zoological
chemistry.