Page:The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous substances 2.djvu/240

 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.

Pliny says, that "in the part of Hispania Citerior about New Carthage whole mountains were covered with Spartum; that the natives made mattresses, shoes, and coarse garments of it, also fires and torches; and that its tender tops were eaten by animals ." He also says, that it grows spontaneously where nothing else will grow, and that it is "the rush of a dry soil."

The question now arises, what plant Pliny intended to describe. Clusius, who travelled in Spain chiefly with a view to botany, supposed Pliny's "Spartum" to be the tough grass, used in every part of Spain for making mats, baskets, &c., which Linnæus afterwards called Stipa Tenacissima. It is not surprising, that the opinion of so eminent a botanist as Clusius has been generally adopted. It is, however, far more probable, that the plant, which Pliny intended to speak of, was the Spartium Junceum, Linn., so familiarly known under the name of Spanish Broom.

In the first place, the name Spartum should be considered as decisive of the question, unless some sufficient reason can be