SECTION II : LEVANTINE COTTON 159 



into Macedonia. It is for certain the first bushy cultivated annual First 

 Gossypium or Xylon mentioned by botanical writers. Varthema n ^ 

 (' Trav. in East/ Hakl.'s ' Voyages,' iv. p. 552), who visited Damascus 

 in 1503, speaks of the abundance of gossampine wool at Aman. 

 Further on he remarks that the Muhammadans make hose of the 

 wool. Porta (' Villa,' p. 900), who died in 1515, refers to what is 

 also, no doubt, this species as largely grown in Italy. Euellius (I.e.) 

 remarks that the plant had been brought from Italy but was now 

 (1537) being grown in France. Fuchsius (Leonard Fousch) speaks 

 of it as grown in Upper Egypt, toward Arabia, in Crete, Malta, &c., 

 and as being recently planted in German gardens. Jonston (I.e. 1662) 

 calls this cotton G. frutescens (a name also employed by both Italy. 

 Bauhins), and gives details of the methods and seasons of cultivation 

 in Crete, Lemnos, Sicily, Malta, &c. It was sown in March to May, 

 and harvested in September and October. Heuz6 (' Le PI. Indust., i. 

 (1893), p. 133) says that according to De Quiqueron de Beaujeu 

 (' De Laudibus Provinciae,' printed in 1539) they sometimes cultivated France, 

 cotton in Provence. But this is not, however, exactly true, since 

 Abul Jouan has recounted in 1566 that cotton grew in the gardens 

 at Hyeres, but he does not speak of it as an agricultural product. 



Heuze' further mentions that, a century later, cotton cultivation was Switzer- 

 land, 

 attempted in many centres in France, Switzerland, Austria, &c. He 



specially mentions the endeavours made by M. Dupoy in the Cantons 

 of the Lower Alps and Lower Pyrenees. At that time the French 

 Government gave a bounty of a franc per kilo for cotton plucked in 

 France, cleaned and ready to be ginned. All these efforts showed 

 that the cultivation of cotton was possible only below 41 N. lat. 



An Arab physician who visited Egypt in 1200 A.D. gives a list of Egyptian 

 the plants seen by him, but makes no mention of cotton. Prosper tion. 

 Alpinus (1592) speaks of the Egyptians importing cotton for their 

 own use from Syria and Cyprus, but says that, while G. arboreum 

 was cultivated in gardens in a very small way, the Syrian plant 

 (G. herbaceum) was not grown in Egypt. Pena and Lobel (I.e.) 

 observe that cotton, hardly known to our ancestors, has been so 

 immensely increased of late that it is no longer necessary to fetch it 

 from the lands and islands of the Arabs, since it now grows on the 

 shores of the Mediterranean and is conveyed thence to market. 

 Lobel, six years later, adds that he had seen it at Patavia and 

 Venice. Kauwolff (' Hodcep.,' i., 5, 65, 1583), Morison (1699) and 

 others speak of it as extensively cultivated in the Euphrates Valley 



