164 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 



which, being drawn from the distaff, has great 

 advantage over the yarn which is spun by 

 machinery for making candle-wicks, par- 

 ticularly those of sperm and wax, as the 

 fine threads being drawn straighter, are not 

 so liable to spring out in burning, which 

 causes the candles made of other cotton to 

 gutter and burn irregularly. 



It appears that we had made some pro- 

 gress in the manufactory of cotton in Queen 

 Elizabeth's reign, as Gerard observes in his 

 History of Plants, " To speake of the com- 

 modities of the wool of this plant, it were 

 superfluous ; common experience, and the 

 daily vse and benefit we receive by it, doth 

 shew ; so that it were impertinent to our 

 history, to speake of the making of fustian, 

 bombasies, and many other things that are 

 made of the wooll thereof." 



This author appears to have been the first 

 who attempted to cultivate the Gossipium 

 plant in England, for he says that, " it grow- 

 eth about Tripolis and Alepo in Syria, from 

 whence the factor of a worshipful merchant 

 in London, Master Nicholas Lete, did send j 

 vnto his said master diuers pounds weight ' 

 of the seede, whereof some were committed ! 



