Henna.

The Persian ladies tinge the tips of their fingers with henna to make them a reddish-yellow.

“The leaf of the henna-plant resembles that of the myrtle. The blossom has a powerful fragrance; it grows like a feather about 18 inches long, forming a cluster of small yellow flowers.”—Baker: Nile Tribes, Abyssinia, chap. i. p. 3.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.