Note 1918 — BOOK XXXV. AN ACCOUNT OF PAINTINGS AND COLOURS.
John Bostock translation
It is the produce of the Indigofera tinctoria, and comes from Bengal more particularly. Beckmann and Dr. Bancroft have each investigated this subject at great length, and though Pliny is greatly mistaken as to the mode in which the drug was produced, they agree in the conclusion that his “indicum” was real indigo, and not, as some have supposed, a pigment prepared from isatis, or woad.