*ceæ are all remarkable for the abundance of strong and beautiful fibres in their bark[1].
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 Silvestris. We have seen that the ancients were familiarly acquainted with this plant; that it was commonly cultivated in their gardens; and that they gathered it, when growing wild, to be taken as food or medicine. In these circumstances they could scarcely fail to observe 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 produced 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 positive fact, we shall begin 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 explanations:
Malbella vestis quæ ex malvarum stamine conficitur, quam alii molocinam vocant.
Molocina vestis quæ albo stamine sit: quam alii malbellam vocant.
These passages clearly describe a kind 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 [Greek: Molochinê], is a Greek adjective
from [Greek: Molochê], and signifies made of mallow.
Papias, 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 modern times: "Nous avons vu à Madrid, chez le savant pharmacien D. Casimir Ortéga, de ces tissus, qui nous ont semblé fort remarquables. Ils étaient faits avec l'écorce des Althéas officinalis et cannabina, et avec celle du Malva sylvestris." Fée, Flore de Virgile, Paris 1822, p. 66.
