of Alexander's admirals) speaks of the cotton-trees in
India as if they were a new discovery. Yates gives us many quotations
from Latin classical authors, proving the common use of cotton. Its
Latin name was _bambacinum_, from _bombax_, hence the Italian
_bambagio_, _bambagino_, _bambasino_.

The variety of cotton fabrics in India is very numerous, each having
its distinctive beauties and qualities inherited by tradition from
early times. They are enumerated and described in Sir G. Birdwood's
"Arts of India." Almost all of them have been made to carry
embroideries--the transparent muslins,[187] as well as the fine
cloths, and the stronger and thicker fabrics.[188]

Most old English houses contain some hangings of thickly woven cotton,
probably Indian, worked in crewel or worsted, of the time of James I.,
or a little earlier; and beautiful patterns wrought in silk or thread,
on fine cotton linen, reminding one of the arabesques of the Taj
Mahal, succeeded those of the Jacobean style.

Transparent muslins were often embroidered in gold and silver, or
spangled and embossed with beetles' wings; and gold, silver, and silk
were lavished on Indian cotton grounds, as well as on silken stuffs.
Linen was not much embroidered in India, but often printed like
chintz.

Buckram, or plush of cotton, was certainly imported from the East to
England, from the thirteenth century to the time of Elizabeth. There
is at Ashridge, in Hertfordshire, a small jacket of very fine
cotton-plush amongst the baby linen prepared by Elizabeth for the
expected heir of Philip and Mary, and there are other small dresses of
this material of the date of James I. A similar material called
fustian is also named by Marco Polo as a cotton fabric; it is supposed
to have been made in Egypt by the Arabs. This sort of cotton-plush,
variously manipulated, is repeatedly mentioned by Herr Graf'schen in
his "Catalogue of Egyptian Textiles from the Fayoum."

Plano Carpini says the tunics of the Tartars were "bacramo," or else
of baudichin (cloth of gold). Falstaff's "men in buckram" may be thus
explained.[189]

I have already said that cotton is inferior in its qualities to silk
and flax, except in the production of transparent muslins. Its
peculiarity is its tendency to "crinkle" or crumple in wearing,
therefore it does not present a smooth flat surface, except by means
of dressing, which unfits it for clinging effects but suits printed
patterns. Such stuffs as