There are purple clothes, purple handbags, purple bicycles, purple furniture, even purple computers! So purple is one of the most1colors today. But in the past, purple was a very expensive and unusual color. Let's take a look at the rich2of the color purple.

    Some scientists believe that the first plants to appear on Earth over 500 million years ago3looked purple, not green. Plants today are green because4use green chlorophyll (叶绿素) to produce energy.5these early plants probably used something called retinal, which is a dark purple color.

    During the time of the roman Empire (37 BC-476 AD), it was very6to make purple dye (染料). The dye came from sea snails (海螺) .But10.000 dead sea snails7you just one gram (克)of purple dye… as well as a very bad smell! This8purple dye was called Tyrian purple, and it was the preferred9of emperors.

    In 16th--century England, purple was10for the king's family members. Queen Elizabeth Is clothes were purple, but ordinary people were not allowed to11the color.

    In 1856. William Perkin, an 18-year-old12student, noticed something strange while doing an experiment (实验). The chemicals (化学药品) he used to clean his instruments13with the chemicals he used in his experiment and produced a bright purple color. This14Perkin to start a company using this chemical mixture to make purple dye. The dye was much15than sea snail dye. Thanks to Perkin, now anyone can afford to wear purple clothes.