[28] Unfortunately the Journal and Narrative of Nearchus, written B.C. 325-324, are lost, as are also those of Aristobulus, who seems to have been a very accurate observer; and we are indebted to Strabo and Arrian for the summaries and extracts from them that we possess. Strabo’s ‘_Geographia_’ was completed A.D. 21, about three years before his death. Fabius Arrianus wrote his ‘_Historia Indica_,’ and ‘_Periplus Maris Erythræi_,’ which contain valuable particulars of Alexander’s expedition, about A.D. 131-135. Theophrastus, the disciple of Aristotle, writing about B.C. 306, says[29]:-- [29] ‘_De Historia Plantarum_,’ lib. iv. cap. 4. “The trees from which the Indians make their clothes have leaves like those of the black mulberry, but the whole plant resembles the dog-rose. They are planted in rows on the plains, so as to look like vines at a distance.” In another passage of the same book (cap. 9) he writes:-- “In the Island of Tylos, which is in the Arabian Gulf,[30] the wool-bearing trees, which grow there abundantly, have leaves like the vine, but smaller. They bear no fruit, but the pod containing the wool is about the size of a spring apple (“μηλον”), whilst it is unripe and closed, but when it is ripe it opens: the wool is then gathered from it, and woven into cloths of various qualities--some inferior, but others of great value.” [30] Theophrastus is in error in placing Tylos in the Arabian Gulf (which we now call the Red Sea); it was in the Persian Gulf, and is now known as Bahrsin. The ancients, however, gave to the whole of the sea between the east coast of Africa, north of Mogador, and the west shores of India the name of the “Erythræan Sea,” from King Erythros, of whom nothing more is known than the name, which, in Greek, signifies “red.” From this casual meaning of the word it came to be believed that the water of this sea differed in colour from that of others, and that it was consequently more difficult to navigate. This description by Theophrastus is remarkably correct as applied to the herbaceous variety of the cotton-plant, from which the chief supply of cotton for spinning and weaving into cloth has always been obtained. In its mode of growth--branched, spreading, and flexible--it may well be likened to the dog-rose; and its palmate leaves bear a close resemblance to those of the black mulberry, which differ little from the leaves of some varieties of the vine. The remark relative to the mode of cultivation is also exactly applicable to the cotton-plant, which is set in rows about four feet asunder, and the plants about two feet apart, so that a field of it resembles a vineyard when seen from a distance. Pomponius Mela, the author next in order of time, also writes in his account of India[31] of the “trees that produce wool used by the natives for clothing.” [31] _De Situ Orbis_, lib. iii. cap. 7.