or Umbrre, in natural history, a fossil brown or blackish substance, used in painting; to called from Umbria, the ancient name of the duchy of Spoleto in Italy, whence it was first obtained; diluted with water, it serves to make a dark brown colour, usually called with us an hair colour.

Dr Hill and Mr da Costa consider it as an earth of the ochre kind. It is found in Egypt, Italy, Spain, and Germany; in Cyprus also it is found in large quantities; but what we have brought into England is principally from different parts of the Turkish divisions. But it might be found in considerable plenty also in England and Ireland, if properly looked after; several large masses of it having been thrown up in digging Mendip hills in Somersetshire, and in the county of Wexford in Ireland; it is also sometimes found in the veins of lead ore both in Derbyshire and Flintshire.