What is the origin and history behind the Paisley pattern?

There is a great wikipedia article on it. I have a teaching minor in textiles and I checked it over and it is exactly what I learned about it years ago in college. Just use the search term paisley.

From http://StraightDope.com:
“Paisley is actually an ornate pattern that was commonly used for 19th-century shawls manufactured in the town of Paisley, a textile center in Scotland. The Scots stole the idea from similarly patterned cashmere shawls made in Kashmir from goat fleece (cashmere-Kashmir, get it?), which began to be imported from India around 1800. The traditional explanation for the commalike paisley motif is that it’s a pine cone, but if so it’s the damnedest pine cone I ever saw. Textile historian Martin Hardingham has a better idea; he says it’s “more directly identifiable with the cashew fruit and seed pod which has been a symbol of fertility for thousands of years.””

I’ve heard that the motif (I thought it originated in Persia, but I am doing this from memory) was supposed to be a subtle rendition of a testicle. If we are talking fertility,...cashew seems to be stretching things,

It did originate in Persia, but its use became well known in Paisley, Scotland.

I’ve known some testicles the size of cashews . . . (only briefly of course.)

*** Having pondered upon this very question myself, I sought to discover whether the invention of the microscope and subsequent revealing of the Paramecium, had any correlation to the famed Paisley print design. Any one agree?