Note 2477 — Chapter XIII · EXPORTS FROM AFRICA AND THE EAST.

It appears to be perfectly clear, notwithstanding the arguments of Palmerius, (Exercitat. in Auct. Græc. p. 17, sqq.,) that the wool-bearing trees described by Herodotus, (iii. 106, cf. ii. 86, vii. 181,) and Theophrastus (Hist. Plant. iv. 7. 7,) were no other than the perennial cotton shrubs. Palmerius was led into the mistake he has committed by having been informed, that the cotton was an annual plant, whereas, as is now well known, there are two species of cotton shrub, the one annual, the other perennial, and it was evidently the latter that flourished in India and the island of Tylos. Pollux, who speaks distinctly of cotton, relates, that it was produced in Egypt. (Onomast. vii. 75.) Belon, (Observat. ii. 6,) seems to imagine that the ancient authors above cited, speak of the silk tree, which is found growing at the present day on the banks of the Nile, in Upper Egypt and Nubia.