no exception can justly be made to it as a reward 

 for the ability or patronage of distinguished persons, 

 yet such names as Rudbeckia, Rotbollia, and Holms- 

 kioldia, are very uncouth j but an Amelia elegantis- 

 sima, I hope will one day or other palliate these harsh 

 sounds. 



COMMON COTTON. This is an herbaceous c 0r .<^s- 



Stamina mi- 



plant, a native of the East Indies, growing to about ^ r e ° ft u n % a g nd 

 three feet high. The whole plant is downy, and 

 whilst young, odorous. The blossom is of a pale yellow, 

 with five red spots at the bottom, and its seeds, which 

 are ripened in September, are immersed in fine white 

 cotton : that cotton, which is produced in China, of 

 which the cloth called Nankin, is made, is said to 

 be tinged with red in its vegetable state, which is 

 supposed to be the cause of its washing better than 

 any cloth that we can manufacture to imitate it 

 Few plants are more useful than this: it furnishes 

 clothing to the four quarters of the world ; and the 

 seeds are an article of food to the inhabitants where it 

 is cultivated. 



There are six species of this Genus, and the Bar- 

 badoes cotton is the species the most cultivated in the 

 West Indies, and forms a considerable branch of their 

 exports. 



This cotton plant is set in rows in the West Indies, 

 about five feet apart. It grows from four to six feet 

 high, and produces two crops annually ; the first in 

 dght months from the time of sowing the seed, and the 



