It's a good thing people didn't take my advice to ignore this second-chance purple-passion plea: i
find this kind of mixture of history & "natural history" fascinating in the extreme!  To add my two
cents' worth, the ultra-common Nucella lapillus L. can be coaxed into producing a purple dye, and
there was almost a major industry (ok - it flopped bigtime!!) up here in Nova Scotia producing dye
from the beasties, early in the 20th century.  Turned out that it took more labor than it was worth,
and since governments weren't handing out huge subsidies to business small and large back then, it
was left alone to its natural fate!
Cheers,
Ross M.
--
Ross Mayhew:  Schooner Specimen Shells:  Http://www.schnr-specimen-shells.com
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