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 Μολόχινη, is a Greek adjective from Μολόχη, 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: _Melocinia_ (vestis est), quæ malvarum stamine conficitur, quam alii _molocinam_, alii _malvellam_ vocant. _Isid. Hisp. Orig._ xix. 22. The cloth called _Melocinea_ is made of the thread of mallows, and is called by some _Molocina_, by others _Malvella_. The passages of Papias cannot be taken as a proof, that mallow-cloth was woven in his day. But that it was in fashion as late as the age of Charlemagne appears from the following line, which is quoted by Du Cange (_Glossar. Med. et Inf. Lat. v. Melocineus_) from a poem in praise of that monarch, attributed to Alcuin: Tecta melocineo fulgescit femina amictu. Wrapt in a mallow shawl the lady shines. The word “_fulgescit_” aptly describes the lustre of the material under consideration. From the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea[199] we learn, that _cloths made of mallow_, were among the articles of export from India, being brought from Ozene (Ugain) and Tagara in the interior of the country to the sea-port of Barygaza (Baroch). P. 146. 169, 170, 171. [199] P. 146. 169, 170, 171. Arriani Op. ed. Blancardi, tom. ii.