346 



XXVI. MALVACEAE. (Maxwell T. Masters.) [Gossypiun 



I ^^ 



^f 





-1 



14. GOSSITPXUBI, Linu. 



Herbs shrubs or low trees. 



Peduncles axillary, 



Leaves palmately lobed. 

 l-tlowered, jointed. Flowers large, yellow witli, or rarely without, a crimson 

 centre, or all purplish. Bradeoles 3, large, leafy, cordate, sprinkled like tne 

 calyx with black glandular dots. Calyx cup-shaped, truncate or sligMiy 

 5-toothed. Petals convolute or spreading, Staminal-tube as in Hy^iscus.^ 

 Omry 5-celled; style clavate, 5-grooved at the apex with five stigmas; 

 ovules many in each cell. Capsule loculicidally 3-5-valved. ^^^^f^^^T 

 clothed with woolly hairs ; cotyledons leafy, plicate, sprinkled with blacK 



dots.— DiSTRiB. Tropics of the Old and New World. 



The veiy numerous forms of this genus are distributed by cultivation throughout the 

 hotter regions of the globe. Their synonymy is extremely coraplicated, and has 9^*°^ 

 the attempts of many authors. Wight and Arnott greatly added to the conhision Dy 

 their attempts to reduce all the varieties to two species, G. album and G. mgnm. 

 Speaking broadly, it is not difficult to recognise the following forms. G. Stoclcsnjs 

 wild in Sindh, and may be the primitive form of the cultivated states of G. herbaceiim. 



■ i 



H 



J 



'i 



1 

 ■I 



_-r1 



I 



A 



J 



\ 



1. G. Stocks!!, Mast. ; shrubby, branching, leaves palmately 3-5-lobea 

 lobes glabrous oblong obtuse, bracteoles deeply laciniate, segnaents nnca 

 lanceolate, cotton yellow adherent to the seeds and with no felted aowu 

 beneath. 



Limestone rocks on the coasts of Sixdh, truly wild, StocJos ; Dalzell. ^ 

 Branches straggling, diffuse. Leaves small, rounded with five roundish or ooi 



^— T • ' Cotton not separable from the seea. ^ 



Capsule ovoid. 



lobes. i''Zoz^Jcrs small, yellow. ^^^^^.^ ^ - p u.rba- 



It seems probable that this may be the wild form of the plant cultivated as <r. n>e 

 ceum, and therefore the parent type of all the forms of Indian cotton. Dalzeii 



) apparently confound Roxburgh's G, oltusifolivmj'i^l 



Gibson (liomb. Fl. 21) apparently 



just alluded to. 



assume the appearance of those' of G. herbaceum. 



orm 



Stocks, indeed, remarks, that in cultivation the 'eaves of tins p- 



Roxburgh's 



form of 



he says is a native of Cevlon, appears, moreover, from his drawing to be a 

 G, herbaceum. Thwaites does not mention any species as native of Ceylon- 



G. HERBACEUM, Z. ; DC. Prodr. i. 456 ; annual or perennial, hai^^^ 

 subglabrous, leaf-lobes broadly ovate acuminate, flowers y;^|;[*^y^^^.^^iii 



or 

 a 



purple centre rarely wholly yellow or white or purple, petals spread = 



bracteoles not divided below the middle, sometimes entire or i^ean^^-^jj 



cotton white or brownish, adherent to the seeds, overlying a grey or g, m 



'. CoK FL iii. 269 ■ Fl. Ind. iii. 184 ; WigM Ic t. 9, 1 1 ; i'%' ^i 



down. Roxb. \jvi. n. in. lioa ; ri.i na. iii. itt4 ; tr igm i v. ^- %f^'. \ ' ^ c^ 

 t. 23, f. 1 ; Wall Cat. 1880 : Cav. Diss. vi. 310, t. 164, f. 2 \/'^^^f'Z%n. 

 Cotmi p. 31, t. 2 ; Mast in Oliv. Fl. Trap. Afr. i. 212. «. indicum, ^ ^^ 

 hncycl.n. \U-D€. Prodr. i. 456. 07 album, W. ^ ^- ^TJiJ/Hort. 

 0. micranthum, DC. Prodr. I.e. (in part) : Eoyle III i. 49.-ii/'^^ -" 

 Mai i. t. 31. \ 1 I > >! 



Cultivated ; furnishing the varieties of Indian cotton, snch as Dacca ^^^^^^^j^'a few 



or le?8 hairy, *" 



Erect, shrubby, or herbaceous, nearly glabrous or more or less hairy, »"^ "^jj'" l^nJ 

 scattered glandular points. Lmm% cordate, 3-5- rarely 7-lobed, usual y ^u ^^^y^^i^ 

 pn the under surface of the midrib. Stipules ovate-lanceolate, entire or ^jl^;^ truncate 

 Pedunchs shorter than the petiole, Bracteoles equalling thejcapsule. V^'//^^ cuneate 



or obsoletely crennlate, much shorter than the bracteoles. Petals ^^^y^^^ji> cotton 

 Capsule ovate, globose, raucronate, 3-5-valved. Seeds 5-7 in eacb,ce.% ^^ ^■''■-^■- ■ 

 vhite, rarely yellowish, overlying a greenish or greyish down. v # • 



- J h 



> 





, > 



J J r 



_ _ ^ 



^ ^ 





.■-J 



4^ ' ' ■ 



B H 



I ' 



. ..r 



^■b 



■-X 



K r T r 



1 _- ' 



J 



•■%■ 



L^- 



J^_ 



nfT^'- 



^ o 



..i»- 



-V 



I — ■" 



^- -r 



_ I 



^ L. 



H ^. 



'■ \ 



■ - .t.- 1-^ >- ' 



I- .1 







.:..'. ■ 



_-.J . ^x. *-* 



