BOOK XII. XXI. 38-xxiii. 40 



an indescribably sweet seent and the fruit resembles 

 a lupine, and is so prickly that no animal can touch it. 

 On a more elevated plateau in the same island there 

 are trees " that bear wool, but in a different manner to 

 those ^ of the Chinese, as the leaves of these trees have 

 no growth on them, and might be thought to be vine- 

 leaves were it not that they are smaller ; but they 

 bear gourds of the size of a quince, which when they 

 ripen burst open and disclose balls of down from 

 which an expensive linen for clothing is made. 

 XXII. Their name for this tree is the gossypinus ; 

 it also grows in greater abundance on the smaller 

 island of Tyros, which is ten miles distant from the 

 other. Juba says that this shrub has a woolly down 

 growing round it, the fabric made from which is 

 superior to the Unen of India. He also says that 

 there is an Arabian tree called the cynas from which 

 cloth is made, which has foliage resembhng a palm- 

 leaf. Similarly the natives of India are provided with 

 clothes by their own trees. But in the Tyros islands 

 there is also another tree with a blossom like a 

 white violet but four times as large ; it has no scent, 

 which may well surprise us in that region of the 

 world. 



XXIII. There is also another tree which resembles An evergreen 

 this one but has more foHage and a rose-coloured "^^^* 

 blossom, which it closes at nightfall and begins to 

 open at sunrise, unfolding it fully at noon : the 

 natives speak of it as going to sleep. The same 

 island also produces palm-trees, oHves and vines, as 

 well as figs and all the other kinds of fruit-trees. 

 None of the trees there sheds its leaves; and the 

 island is watered by cold springs, and has a con- 

 siderable rainfall. 



29 



