or Arnotta, 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 Orleans, and Roucou.

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 close cane sieves, is pretty thick, of a deep red colour, and an offensive smell; in boiling, it throws up its colouring matter to the surface in form of scum, which is afterwards boiled down by itself. Annot to a due consistence, and made up while soft into balls.

The annota commonly met with among us is moderately hard and dry, of a brown colour on the outside, and a dull red within. It is difficulty acted upon by water, and tinges the liquor only of a pale brownish yellow colour. It very readily dissolves in rectified spirit of wine, 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 acquires a deep, but not a very durable, orange dye. Its colour is not changed by alum or by acids, any more than by alkalies; 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 manioe or cassava.