GOSSYPIUM FROM EAST TROPICAL AFRICA. 213 
malum has been found; and this was considered by the late 
Dr. Welwitseh, whose opinion on such a point carries the greatest 
weight, to be the only form truly wild in Africa. To these 
must now be added the species found in the Zanguebar district, 
and which has suggested the present note. 
It is worthy of remark that in all the plants just mentioned the 
cotton is short, and of a yellowish or nankeen colour. 
Gossypium Kirkii, the technical characters of which are appended 
to this communieation, was found by Dr. (now Sir) John Kirk at 
Dar Salam. 
In a letter with which he has favoured me, Sir John says that 
he has always regarded it as the nearest thing to the cotton of 
cultivation, and that he never saw it except in one locality, where 
it grows on a slope, and where it scrambles up between and over 
the bushes and trees to a height sometimes of 14 feet, but gene- 
rally less. “To judge from appearances," continues Sir John, 
"it is quite wild, and has no near relation to any cultivated 
plant." 
To me the present plant seems more nearly allied to G. barba- 
dense than to any other species. It may here be remarked that 
G. barbadense, in some or other of its varieties, is the species 
most commonly grown in tropical Africa, one variety, G. barba- 
dense var. acuminatum, which yields the Kidney Cotton, having 
been found in cultivation by the Makonde people eighty miles 
from the coast. Sir John Kirk also found the plant cultivated 
near Lake Nyassa, and along the Zambesi, Shiré, and Rovuma 
valleys. Cameron met with it cultivated near Lake Tanganyika ; 
and Speke and Grant in lat. 7? 27' S., long. 37° 80' E. In the 
north Vogel found it cultivated near Lake Tsad; it is grown in 
Abyssinia ; and there are specimens in the Kew Herbarium from 
the Somali coast. On the western side of the continent, G. barba- 
dense is the species principally cultivated from Senegal to Angola, 
and in the islands, as in Madeira, Canaries, Fernando Po, &c. 
In Madagascar, also, G. barbadense is the form usually grown. 
This species may therefore be taken as the prevailing one in 
tropical Africa generally. Along the Nile valley, however, G. her- 
baceum is the form most commonly grown, extending as far as 
Khartum ; and occurring in a naturalized or half-wild condition 
along the White Nile, lat. 9° 15' N., where it was found by 
Dr. Murie. Specimens are in the Kew Herbarium from this 
locality, labelled * Not cultivated—introduced." 
