Exhibition from 1st March to 15th Novembre
At a very early date mankind learned how to put to good use various beneficial plant properties to help improve living conditions. This exhibition presents fibre plants used to make cloth and paper, and shows visitors some dye plants used to produce dyes.
A journey in time and space to find  out about linen, grown in Iraq 5000 years before Christ, cotton, grown in India 1200 years before Christ, not forgetting hemp and nettles : all those plants which for thousands of years have clothed mankind, were instrumental in voyages, communication, covered painters' stretchers before being dyed, painted or illuminated thanks to the properties of other plants.
As early as Neollithic times, dye plants were the only possible source of colour (as well as some insects, shell fish and minerals) for fabrics, leather, paintings, tapestries, make-up and tattoos. Woad was used to dye linen and hemp. Archaeological remains prove that indigo was used in ancien Egypt. These plants were grown and thousands of square kilometres until the end ot the 19th century. They were as important as spices in word history, trade and economy.