heliotrope vs litmus

heliotrope

noun
  • A light purple or violet colour. 

  • Particularly, a purple-flowered plant of the species Heliotropium arborescens. 

  • A bloodstone (a variety of quartz). 

  • An instrument, employed in triangulation, that uses a mirror to reflect sunlight toward another, very distant, surveyor. 

  • The fragrance of heliotrope flowers. 

  • A plant that turns so that it faces the sun. 

adj
  • Light purple or violet. 

  • Keeping one’s face turned toward the sun. 

litmus

noun
  • A dyestuff extracted from certain lichens, that changes color when exposed to pH levels greater than or less than certain critical levels. 

  • A simple test of any attribute; a litmus test. 

  • A simple test of acidity in a liquid using litmus, usually in the form of litmus paper. 

How often have the words heliotrope and litmus occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )