Note 21 — INTRODUCTION.

Gujarát of about the year a.d. 1300 is thus described: ‘The air of Gujarát is healthy, and the earth picturesque; the vineyards bring forth blue grapes twice a year, and the strength of the soil is such that the cotton plants spread their branches like willow and plane trees, and yield produce for several years successively. Besides Cambay, the most celebrated of the cities of Hind in population and wealth, there are 70,000 towns and villages, all populous, and the people abounding in wealth and luxuries.’ Elliot’s History of India, III. 31, 32, and 43. Marco Polo, about a.d. 1292, says: ‘In Gujarát there grows much pepper and ginger and indigo. They have also a great deal of cotton. Their cotton trees are of very great size, growing full six paces high, and attaining to an age of twenty years.’ Yule’s Edition, II. 328. The cotton referred to was probably the variety known as devkapás Gossypium religiosum or peruvianum, which grows from ten to fifteen feet high, and bears for several years. Royle, 149–150. ↑