160 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 



Thames about the year 1296. It was then a 

 small plant cultivated only by the Hamburgh 

 Company. Elizabeth lived to see it blos- 

 som through the nourishment which her en- 

 lightened mind procured, not only from the 

 original soil of the Levant, but from the east- 

 ern and the newly discovered western world, 

 as well as from the north. The succeeding 

 reigns have enjoyed the fruit, except when 

 it has been blighted by intestine troubles, or 

 cankered by monopoly ; a disease that stints 

 the growth, and nourishes caterpillars. 



But, to leave allegory and ideal plants, we 

 travel into the land of Ham, from whence 

 the Gossipium plant originated. It is sup- 

 posed that anciently it grew only in Upper 

 Egypt ; but on this we cannot decide so po- 

 sitively as we can affirm that the Egyptians 

 were the people who first made cloth from 

 cotton wool. 



The Israelites, who must have learnt the 

 art while in bondage, in all probability were 

 the first who cultivated this plant in the land 

 of Canaan. 



From Arabia it would naturally travel 

 towards China, through all the countries that 

 lie below the 40th degree of north latitude; 

 but, as a species of the cotton plant has 



