ay also be stained of a durable purple by means of solution of gold in aqua regia. The solution for this purpose should be as fully saturated as possible; it should be diluted with three times its quantity of water; and if the colour is required deep, the piece, when dry, must be repeatedly moistened with it. The colour does not take place till a considerable time, sometimes several days, after the liquor has been applied: to hasten its appearance, the subject should be exposed to the sun and free air, and occasionally removed to a moist place, or moistened with water.—When solution of gold in aqua regia is soaked up in linen clothes, the metal may be recovered by drying and burning them.

Linens flowered with Gold-leaf. Dr Lewis mentions a manufacture established in London for embellishing linen with flowers and ornaments of gold-leaf. The linen, he says, looks whiter than most of the printed linens; the gold is extremely beautiful, and bears washing well. The doctor informs us, that he had seen a piece which he was credibly informed had been washed three or four times, with only the same precautions which are used for the finer printed linens; and on which the gold continued entire, and of great beauty. Concerning the process used in this manufacture, he gives us no particulars.

Fossil Linen, is a kind of amiantus, which consists of flexible, parallel, soft fibres, and which has been celebrated for the uses to which it has been applied, of being woven, and forming an incriminable cloth. Paper also, and wicks for lamps, have been made of it. See Amiantus, Asbestos, and Mineralogy Index.