Chapter XII: Mallows

CULTIVATION AND USE OF THE MALLOW AMONG THE ANCIENTS.--TESTIMONY OF LATIN, GREEK, AND ATTIC WRITERS.

The earliest mention of Mallows is to be found in Job xxx. 4.--Varieties of the Mallow--Cultivation and use of the Mallow--Testimony of ancient authors--Papias and Isidore’s mention of Mallow cloth--Mallow cloth common in the days of Charlemagne--Mallow shawls--Mallow cloths mentioned in the Periplus as exported from India to Barygaza (Baroch)--Calidāsa the Indian dramatist, who lived in the first century B. C.--His testimony--Wallich’s (the Indian botanist) account--Mantles of woven bark, mentioned in the Sacontăla of Calidāsa--Valcălas, or Mantles of woven bark, mentioned in the Ramayana, a noted poem of ancient India--Sheets made from trees--Ctesias’ testimony--Strabo’s account--Testimony of Statius Cæcilius and Plautus, who lived 169 B. C. and 184 B. C.--Plautus’s laughable enumeration of the analogy of trades--Beauty of garments of Amorgos mentioned by Eupolis--Clearchus’s testimony--Plato mentions linen shifts--Amorgine garments first manufactured at Athens in the time of Aristophanes 191

CHAPTER XIII.

SPARTUM OR SPANISH BROOM.

CLOTH MANUFACTURED FROM BROOM BARK, NETTLE, AND BULBOUS PLANT.--TESTIMONY OF GREEK AND LATIN AUTHORS.

Authority for Spanish Broom--Stipa Tenacissima--Cloth made from Broom-bark--Albania--Italy--France--Mode of preparing the fibre for weaving--Pliny’s account of Spartum--Bulbous plant--Its fibrous coats--Pliny’s translation of Theophrastus--Socks and garments--Size of the bulb--Its genus or species not sufficiently defined--Remarks of various modern writers on this plant--Interesting communications of Dr. Daniel Stebbins, of Northampton, Mass. to Hon. H. L. Ellsworth 202

PART SECOND.

ORIGIN AND ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE SHEEP.