[ad. Sp. alcaneta (also arcaneta), dim. of alcana, alcaña: see ALCANNA. The diminutive form was applied to a European plant yielding red dye, the Anchusa or Alkanna tinctoria, (formerly sometimes called Alkanna spuria) to distinguish it from the oriental Al-kanna = henna. Hence it has been extended to other species of Anchusa and allied genera. A variant is ORCANET, a. Fr. orcanète, ad. Sp. arcaneta above.]
1. A dye-material obtained from the roots of a boraginaceous plant, which yields a fine red color.
1326, etc. Prices of Foreign Prod., in Rogers, Agric. & Prices, II. 545. Anno 1326 ‘Alkanet 1/4lb. @ 1/8,’ anno 1334 and 1376 ‘Alkanet 1lb. @ /8.’
c. 1440. in Househ. Ord. (1790), 256. Take alkenet ii penyworth, and frie hit in faire grese.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. (1634), 96. With an addition of Orchanet it will be red.
1725. Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v. Lip, Add a little Orcanet to give it a Colour.
1791. Hamilton, trans. Berthollet’s Dyeing, I. Introd. 11. Others again prepared their cloth with alkanet.
1876. Ure, Dict. Arts, I. 89. Oil coloured by alkanet is used for staining wood in imitation of rosewood.
2. The plant whose root yields the dye, Anchusa or Alkanna tinctoria, N.O. Boraginaceæ, also called Orchanet, Dyer’s Bugloss, Spanish Bugloss, and Bugloss of Languedoc.
1567. Maplet, Greene Forest, 55. Orchanet, of the Romaines and Greekes is called Anchusa.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, 9. The first [of the smal Buglosses] is called in French Orchanette, in English Alkanet, or Orchanet.
1616. Surflet, Countr. Farme, 332. Red [Waxe is made] by putting the root of Alkanet vnto common Wax.
1725. Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v. Orkanet, The Orkanet grows in the Southern Parts of France.
1796. Withering, Bot. Arrangem., II. 226. The root of the foreign Alkanet that is kept in the shops.
1828. S. Gray, Operat. Chem., 541. Alkanet root gives a fine colour.
3. Applied to kindred plants: a. Common (English) Alkanet (Anchusa officinalis); b. Evergreen Alkanet (A. sempervirens); c. Bastard Alkanet (Lithospermum arvense); d. Alkanet (of America), (L. canescens).
1597. Gerard, Herbal, II. cclxxi. 657. The Alkanets flower and flourish in the sommer moneths.
1861. Pratt, Flower. Pl., IV, 50. The roots of most of the Alkanets furnish some slight degree of red colouring matter.
