162 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 



as quinces, which opened when ripe, and 

 were full of down, from which was made fine 

 and costly cloth like linen ; and that in an 

 island in the same gulf, called Tylos, there 

 was another kind of cotton tree, called Gossam- 

 pines, that was very productive. Theophras- 

 tus also mentions these trees # , which we 

 presume to be the Arbor turn, or tree cotton, 

 and which seem also the same that Virgil 

 notices : 



" Or Ethiopian forests, bearing wool, 



Or leaves from whence the Seres fleeces pull." 



This species is a perennial plant or shrub, 

 and was cultivated as a curiosity in this 

 country as long back as 1694. 



Nievhoff, who was in China in the year 

 1655, says, cotton grows in great abundance 

 in that country, and was then one of the 

 principal articles of its trade. The seeds 

 had been introduced into that empire about 

 500 years previously. Siam produces the 

 most beautiful cotton ; hose and other arti- 

 cles, manufactured from this down, exceeding 

 even silk for lustre and beauty. The seed 

 of this silky cotton has been sown in the 

 Antilles, where the plants flourish, and yield 

 this delicate floss in abundance. 



* Book iv. c. 9. 



