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LIBER XII · CAPUT 10

TREES OF THE ISLANDS OF THE PERSIAN SEA. THE COTTON TREE

TREES OF THE ISLANDS OF THE PERSIAN SEA. THE COTTON TREE. Complete modern editorial illustration created specifically for this chapter.
TREES OF THE ISLANDS OF THE PERSIAN SEA. THE COTTON TREE · EDITORIAL PLATE XII.10 · modern editorial plate
TREES OF THE ISLANDS OF THE PERSIAN SEA. THE COTTON TREE. Complete modern editorial illustration created specifically for this chapter.

Latine · Mayhoff 1906

Tylos insula in eodem sinu est, repleta silvis qua spectat orientem quaque et ipsa aestu maris perfunditur. magnitudo singulis arboribus fici, flos suavitate inenarrabili, pomum lupino simile, propter asperitatem intactum omnibus animalibus, eiusdem insulae excelsiore suggestu lanigerae arbores, alio modo quam Serum: his folia infecunda, quae ni minora essent, vitium poterant videri. ferunt mali cotonei amplitudine cucurbitas, quae maturitate ruptae ostendunt lanuginis pilas, ex quibus vestes pretioso linteo faciunt.

English · Bostock & Riley 1855–57

In the same gulf, there is the island of Tylos, covered with a forest on the side which looks towards the East, where it is washed also by the sea at high tides. Each of the trees is in size as large as the fig; the blossoms are of an indescribable sweetness, and the fruit is similar in shape to a lupine, but so rough and prickly, that it is never touched by any animal. On a more elevated plateau of the same island, we find trees that bear wool, but of a different nature from those of the Seres; as in these trees the leaves produce nothing at all, and, indeed, might very readily be taken for those of the vine, were it not that they are of smaller size. They bear a kind of gourd, about the size of a quince; which, when arrived at maturity, bursts asunder and discloses a ball of down, from which a costly kind of linen cloth is made.