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Lenormant thought that Roccella was merely the sea-port of the inland town. I wish he were right. No archaeologist, whose work I have studied, affects me with such a personal charm, with such a sense of intellectual sympathy, as Francois Lenormant dead, alas, before he could complete his delightful book. But one fears that, in this instance, he judged too hastily.
Professor Burnett, in his Outline of Botany, informs us, that "Roccella, a corruption of the Portuguese Rocha, is a name given to several species of lichen, in allusion to the situation in which they are found; delighting to grow on otherwise barren seaward rocks, that thus produce a profitable harvest.
On some of the rugged masses of masonry grew large hoary tufts of the strange roccella or orchil-weed, which yields the famous purple dye with which, in all likelihood, the robes of the Cæsars were coloured and which gave wealth, rank, and name to one princely Italian family, the Rucellai.
Yet Cassiodorus says that the hill by which you approached the town was not high enough to weary a traveller, a consideration making for the later view that Scylaceum stood very near to the Marina of Catanzaro, at a spot called Roccella, where not only is the nature of the ground suitable, but there exist considerable traces of ancient building, such as are not discoverable here on the mountain top.
Even his family name has a significance which is prettily symbolic: properly understood, it may bring before us a little lichen, popularly named orcella or roccella, which grows on the rocks of Greek isles and in the Canaries; and having drunk a great deal of light into its little stems and button-heads, will, under certain circumstances, give it out again as a reddish purple dye, very grateful to the eyes of men.
In herborizing near La Paz we found a great quantity of Lichen roccella on the basaltic rocks bathed by the waters of the sea. The archil of the Canaries is a very ancient branch of commerce; this lichen is however found in less abundance in the island of Teneriffe than in the desert islands of Salvage, La Graciosa, and Alegranza, or even in Canary and Hierro.
WOAD. The leaves steeped in water till the parts are decomposed, produces a fine blue fecula, which is made into cakes, and sold to the woollen-dyers. For its culture, see p. 32. LICHEN Roccella. ORCHIL. The fine purple called orchil is extracted from this moss. LITHOSPERMUM officinale. GROMWELL. The roots afford a fine red, which is used by the young girls in Sweden to colour their faces.
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