274 
pliny's NATUEAL HISTOET. [Book XXVII. 
woven material " generally, and not of fine linen, or cambric, as suggested 
in iSote 55. 
B. xix. c. 2 [V. iv. p. 134]. The genuineness of tlie passage "which 
makes mention of the Gossypium/* is questioned by Dr. Yates, who 
thinks it possible that it is an interpolation : such, however, if we may 
judge from the result of Sillig's researches, does not appear to have been 
the case. If, on the other hand, the passage is genuine, Dr. Yates is of 
opinion that the statement is incorrect, and that cotton was not grown in 
Egypt. It seems just possible, however, that Pliny may have had in view 
the trees mentioned by him in B. xiv. c. 28, 
B. xix. c. 4 [V. iv. p. 137, also p. 134, Note 37],. Dr. Yates has ad- 
duced a number of convincing arguments to prove that the Byssus " of 
the ancients cannot have been cotton, but that in all probability it was a 
texture of fine fiax. The passages of Pausanias, (B. v. c. 25, and B. vi. 
c. 26) in which ^' Byssus " is mentioned, would certainly seem to apply 
to flax, a product which is still cultivated near the mouth of the river 
Peneus, in ancient Elis. There is no doubt, however, that Philostratus, 
though perhaps erroneously, has used the word Byssus" as meaning 
cotton. 
