or ANNOTTA, in dyeing, an elegant red colour, formed from the pellicles or pulp of the seeds of the Bixa, a tree common in South America. It is also called Terra Orleana, and Rotcou.

The manner of making anotta is as follows: The red seeds, cleared from the pods, are steeped in water for seven or eight days, or longer, till the liquor begins to ferment; then strongly stirred, stamped with wooden paddles and beaters, to promote the separation of the red skins: this process is repeated several times, till the seeds are left white. The liquor, passed through clothe cane-sieves, is pretty thick, of a deep red colour, and a very ill smell; in boiling, it throws up its colouring matter to the surface in form of scum, which is afterwards boiled down by itself to a due consistence, and made up while soft into balls. The anotta commonly met with among us, is moderately hard and dry, of a brown colour on the outside, and a dull red within. It is difficultly acted upon by water, and tinges the liquor only of a pale brownish-yellow colour. In rectified spirit of wine, it very readily dissolves, and communicates a high orange or yellowish red. Hence it is used as an ingredient in varnishes, for giving more or less of an orange-cast to the simple yellows. Alkaline salts render it perfectly soluble in boiling water, without altering its colour. Wool or silk boiled in the solution acquire a deep, but not a very durable, orange-dye. Its colour is not changed by alum or by acids, any more than by alkalis: but when imbibed in cloth, it is discharged by soap, and destroyed by exposure to the air. It is said to be an antidote to the poisonous juice of manioc or cassava.—Labat informs us, that the Indians prepare an anotta greatly superior to that which is brought to us, of a bright shining red colour, almost equal to carmine: that, for this purpose, instead of steeping and fermenting the seeds in water, they rub them with the hands, previously dipt in oil, till the pellicles come off, and are reduced into a clear paste; which is scraped off from the hands with a knife, and laid on a clean leaf in the shade to dry. De Laet, in his notes on Margraves's natural history of Brazil, mentions also two kinds of anotta; one of a permanent crimson colour, used as a focus or paint for the face; and another which gives a colour inclining more more to that of saffron. This last, which is our anot- ta, he supposes to be a mixture of the first sort with certain resinous matters, and with the juice of the root of the tree. The wax or pulp in which the seeds are inclosed is a cool agreeable rich cordial, and has been long in use among the Indians and Spaniards in Ame- rica, who still mix it with their chocolate, both to heighten the flavour and raise the colour. It is said to be a successful remedy in bloody fluxes. The roots have much the same properties with the wax; but these are observed to work more powerfully by the uri- nary paffages: they are used by some people in their broths, and seem to answer all the purposes of the pulp, but in a more faint degree. See Bixa.