MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 121 



and its culture gradually spread to China, Japan, and other 

 countries. Many of the early writers frequently made men- 

 tion of cotton, and it is said that the material wrapped about 

 the mummies found in Peruvian tombs was from this fiber. 

 The cloth with which the Egyptians covered their dead ap- 

 pears to be linen, but cotton was probably known in Egypt 

 from early times. India was the center of the cotton industry 

 for a long time, and the natives not only manufactured suf- 

 ficient cloth for their own needs but sold it to traders from 

 other countries. In China the use of cotton for clothing made 

 little progress until about the thirteenth century, silk being 

 the material in common use. Of Egypt, Pliny says: "In 

 upper Egypt, toward Arabia, there grows a shrub which 

 some call 'gossypion' and others 'xylon,' from which the stuffs 

 are made which we call 'xylina.' It is small and bears a fruit 

 resembling the filbert, within which is a downy wool which 

 is spun into thread. Nothing is more to be desired than this 

 goods for whiteness and softness. Garments are made from 

 it which are very acceptable to the priests of Egypt," 



When Columbus first came to this continent he found cot- 

 ton growing abundantly in the West Indies and being used to 

 a considerable extent for clothing on the mainland. The 

 Mexicans used cotton exclusively for clothing and it was also 

 found in Peru and Brazil. 



Although cotton was grown and spun into cloth by the an- 

 cients, it was slow in gaining popularity in Europe. It was 

 used in Italy at the beginning of the fourteenth century, and 

 its manufacture was confined to southern Europe until the 

 sixteenth century. In England, for a long time, the machinery 

 for spinning was crude and fine yarn could not be made, 

 and it is not known when cotton was first manufactured in 

 that country. About the middle of the eighteenth century 

 England began to export her cotton goods, and the demand 

 soon increased to such an extent that it became a problem to 

 obtain sufficient raw matt-rials and adequate machinery to 

 supply her trade. At this time Arkwright, Cartwright, 

 Crompton, Hargreaves, Kay, and Watt invented machines 

 which aided cotton manufacture. The raw material at that 

 time came principally from the West Indies, the Levant, and 

 India. The United States was producing very little, Brazil 

 being practically the only American country supplying raw 

 cotton. From a non-producing cotton country the United 

 States has sprung into the lead in cotton growing. Bancroft 



