Note 1138 — BOOK XIV. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FRUIT TREES.
John Bostock translation
In allusion to the cotton-tree, or else the mulberry leaves covered with the cocoons of the silkworm. See B. vi. c. 20, and B. xii. c. 21. Virgil, in the Georgics, has the well-known line:
“Velleraque ut foliis depectant tenuia Seres.”