HISTORY 11 



observed the spinning and weaving of the Natives of India, but his 

 description does not necessarily denote cotton as the fibre employed. 



Theophrastus (350 B.C.) gives us the first definite conception of First de- 

 Indian cotton cultivation. He says (' Hist. PL' iv., c. 4, p. 132, ed. Jf'iSdSTn 

 Schneider), ' The trees from which the Indians make cloths have a cotton, 

 leaf like that of the mulberry ; but the whole plant resembles the 

 dog-rose. They set them in the plains arranged in rows, so as to 

 look like vines at a distance.' So again in a further passage he 

 speaks of the island of Tylos as containing many wool-bearing trees 

 which have a leaf like that of the vine but smaller, from the fruits 

 of which they obtain wool which they weave into textiles, some 

 cheap, others of great value. He then adds that cotton cultivation 

 may be seen both in India and Arabia. 



The expressions used by Theophrastus would seem to suggest 

 that the plant of Tylos was different from that of India. The Cultiva- 

 comparison, for example, to the mulberry would suit G. herbaceum tlon ' 

 or its allied Indian form G. obtiisifolium, while the comparison to 

 the vine might be viewed as indicative of G. Nanking. The 

 reference to the Indian plants as set in rows involves cultivation of 

 course, but it would be equally applicable to the perennial as to the 

 annual plant. The comparison to the dog-rose, with its open 

 branches, however, brings to mind the perennial G. Nanking, more 

 especially the roji plant of India, rather than the small compact bush 

 of the ordinary annual cotton. 



Nearchus describes the ' linen ' garments of the Natives of India 

 as woven of the fleeces of trees, and he also discusses the appliances Garments 

 used by them in separating the wool from the seed. Arrian, Strabo, Natlve3< 

 and other early Greek authors employ the word 'linen' (and 

 synonymously karpasos) to denote a fine textile. The more correct 

 Indian signification of carpasus (cotton) was upheld, however, by 

 many writers. Kirbas (or karpas) occurs in the Hebrew Scriptures 

 (Esther, i. 6) : the green hangings at the palace of Susa. In the 

 Augustan age of Latin authors curtains and tents of carbasa were 

 frequently mentioned. Pliny (Bk. xu. ch. 21) tells us that cotton 

 (carbasa) was in Tylos called Gossympines. He does not state whence 

 he deriyed that information, but curiously enough, by modern 

 botanical writers, that word seems to have originated the generic 

 name for the cottons (Gossypium). Ambrosinus (' Phyt.' 1666, i. 106) 

 renders it as Cossipium (the fleece worm), hence Gausapium and 

 Gossampine cloth. (Of. p. 59. 



