MONADELPHIA. 19 



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 species 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 

 eight months from the time of sowing the seed, and 

 the second four months afterwards. Each plant at the 

 two gatherings is reckoned to produce about one pound 

 weight of cotton ; and an acre of land to produce 2/0 

 pounds weight on an average 3 but the certainty ot 

 gathering a good crop is very precarious ; since it may 

 be almost literally said of this plant, that in the morn- 

 ing it is green and flourishing, and in the same even- 

 ing withers and decays. For, when the worms begin 

 to prey upon a whole plantation, though they are at 

 first scarcely perceptible to the naked eye, yet in three 

 days they vvill grow to such a size, and prove so de- 

 structive, as to reduce the most verdant field, thickly 

 and beautifully clothed with leaves and flowers, to 

 almost as desolate and naked a condition as trees are 

 in the month of December, in England, When these 

 worms, V. Iiich are of the caterpillar kind, have at- 

 tained their full growth, they spin, and inwarp them- 

 selves as in a bag, or web, like silk-worms, in the few 

 remaining leaves, or any other covering ; and after a 

 few days, in this their chrysalis state turn into dark- 

 coloured moths and fly awav. 



