The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous ... - Cd3wd.com

FITNESS OP THE MALLOW FOR MAKING CLOTH. 195
cecB are all remarkable for the abundance of strong and beau-
tiful fibres in their bark*.
But of the European species there is none superior in the
fineness, the strength, the whiteness, and lustre of its fibres, to
the Common Mallow, the Malva iSilvestris. We have seen
that the ancients were famiUarly acquainted with this plant
that it was commonly cultivated in theii" gardens ; and that
they gathered it, when growing wild, to be taken as food or
medicine. In these circumstances they could scarcely fail to ob-
serve the aptitude of its bark for being spun into thread. More
especially in places where they had no other native supply of
fibrous materials ; in Attica, for example, which probably pro-
duced neither hemp nor flax, it seems in the highest degree
probable, that the fitness of the mallow to supply materials for
weaving would not be overlooked.
In producing the evidence, which establishes this as a posi-
tive fact, we shall begm with the latest testimonies and proceed
in a reverse order upward to the most ancient. According to
this plan, the first authority is that of Papias, who wrote his
Vocabulary about the year 1050. He gives the following ex-
planations :
cant.
Malbella vestis quae ex malvariun stamine conficitur, quam alii molocinam vo-
Molocina vestis quae albo stamine sit : quam alii malbellam vocant.
These passages clearly describe a Idnd of cloth made of the
white fibres of the common mallow. Malbella, the same with
Malvella, is a Latin adjective, in the form of a diminutive, from
Malva : Molocina, the same with MoUx^w, is a Greek adjective
from MoUxv, and signifies inade of mallow.
rapias, who seems in compiling his dictionary to have made
great use of Isidore, perhaps derived these explanations in part
from the following passage of the latter author :
* We have the following testimony respecting the actual fabrication of mallow-
cloth in modem times
:
" Nous avons vu ft. Madrid, chez le savant phannacien D. Ca.'simir Ortdga, do
Ces tissus, qui nous ont sembld fort remarquables. lis dtaient fails avec I'dcorco
des Altheas officinalis et cannahina, ot avec celle du Malva sylvestris." F6e,
Flore de Virgile, Paris 1822, p. 6G.
;