174 



POPULAU ECONOMIC BOTANY. 



is in Statiusj and he infers that cotton cloths of some 

 kinds were known to the Greeks as early as 200 years 

 before Christ. Perhaps cotton is meant when^ long before 

 Schonbein^s discovery^ " Exhibuit vivos carhasus alba focos/^ 

 when the vestal virgin, upon the extinction of the flames 

 on the altar committed to her care, threw upon the ashes 

 a fillet of muslin from her head and saved her hfe by its 

 ignition. 



By the Roman authors it was frequently mentioned, 

 especially in later times. Thus Cicero speaks of fine tent- 

 cloths as carbasea vela/^ and Pliny mentions them as car- 

 basina vela.''^ Yirgil speaks of cotton sails for ships, when 

 he says Tumidoque inflatur carhasus Austro and it 

 would appear that cotton muslins were w^orn as clothing 

 in his day, for he says, Tenuis glauco velabat amictu car- 

 hasus,'' Similar quotations might be furnished in abundance, 

 but we will again return to Dr. Eoyle, and follow him 

 through his history of this wonderful material, much of 

 which is drawn from the work of Mr. Yates above quoted. 



Gossypium is supposed to be one of the names used to 

 designate cotton in the fourth century, and much earlier 

 than that it was called Gossympinus by Pliny.''^ Later 

 still the name hamhacinuSy made of cotton ; hamhacinum. 



