V. Clearchus of Soli[205] mentions the use of a cover of Amorgos for inclosing a splendid purple blanket. This application of it is agreeable to the foregoing evidence, showing that the _amorgine webs were transparent_. The silky translucence of the lace-like web of mallow would have a very beautiful effect over the fine purple of the downy blanket. [205] Ap. Athenæum, L. vi. p. 255, Casaub. Clearchus probably wrote about 100 years later than the before-mentioned authors, but the circumstances related by him may have occurred about the time when those authors flourished, and even at Athens. VI. Æschines in an oration against Timarchus, the object of which is to hold up to contempt the extravagancies of this Athenian spendthrift, in his enumeration of them, he mentions (p. 118, ed. Reiskii.) that Timarchus took to his house a “woman skilled in making cloths of Amorgos.” VII. Plato in the 13th Epistle, addressed to Dionysius, tyrant of Syracuse, which, if not genuine, is at least ancient, proposes to give to the three daughters of Cebes three long shifts, not the valuable shifts made of Amorgos, but the linen shifts of Sicily. The mention of amorgine garments by the writers, who have now been cited, seems to prove, that the fashion of making and wearing them first came in among the Greeks at Athens in the time of Aristophanes, who lived, as the reader will have observed, in the fifth century before Christ. From them the fashion may have extended itself into Sicily and Italy, which will account, if _Amorgina_ were the same with _Molochina_, for the striking agreement in this respect between the writers of Greek and of Latin Comedy. In subsequent ages the manufacture seems to have declined, probably in consequence of the abundance of silk and other rich and beautiful goods imported from Asia. But the mention of these stuffs in the writings of Isidore and Alcuin renders it probable, that they were brought again into use in the fifth and following centuries of the Christian era. CHAPTER XIII. SPARTUM, OR SPANISH BROOM. CLOTH MANUFACTURED FROM BROOM BARK, NETTLE, AND BULBOUS PLANT.--TESTIMONY OF GREEK AND LATIN AUTHORS. Authority for Spanish Broom--Stipa Tenacissima--Cloth made from Broom-bark--Albania--Italy--France--Mode of preparing the fibre for weaving--Pliny’s account of Spartum--Bulbous plant--Its fibrous coats--Pliny’s translation of Theophrastus--Socks and garments--Size of the bulb--Its genus or species not sufficiently defined--Remarks of various modern writers on this plant--Interesting communications of Dr. Daniel Stebbins, of Northampton, Mass. to Hon. H. L. Ellsworth.