ORIGIN OF THE HINDI COTTON. 7 



to the base than in our Uphmd cottons. The calyx of the Hindi cot- 

 ton has hirge triangular lobes, and these are often produced into a 

 long, slender tip, as in many Mexican and Central American varieties, 

 including that from Acala. 



Many of the plants of the Acala cotton growing at San Antonio 

 in August, 1909, were remarkably close counterparts of some of the 

 Hindi plants of the Jannovitch row in the same field. The chief 

 difference lies in the greater fertility of the Mexican cottons, some 

 of which appear worthy of cultivation in the United States, since 

 they have larger bolls and better lint than our United States Upland 

 varieties. The Hindi cotton is markedly infertile or fruits very late, 

 but this fact may be connected with its status as a reversion. Muta- 

 tive variations, like hybrids, are often more or less completely sterile. 



The Egyptian and the Upland types both have definitely specialized 

 fruiting branches, but the fruiting branches of the Hindi cotton 

 show a much greater tendency to keep an ascending position and con- 

 tinue their vegetative growth, the young floAver buds being often 

 aborted. The same tendency is often seen in aberrant plants of 

 Egyptian cotton, including many that show Hindi characteristics. 

 The fruiting branches of the Hindi hybrids are usually few and short 

 and some of the Hindi-like plants are completely sterile, as already 

 stated. This is in notable contrast wath the behavior of the hybrids 

 between the Egj^ptian and Upland qotton, Avhich have the fruiting 

 branches better developed than in the pure Egyptian stocks. 



COTTON INDIGENOUS IN AMERICA. 



The resemblance between the Mexican and the Hindi cotton from 

 Eg3'pt may not appear to be a sufficient proof of the American origin 

 of the Hindi cotton. It might be thought more likely that cotton 

 had been carried from Egypt to Mexico than from Mexico to Egypt. 

 Account must be taken of the further fact that Mexican and Central 

 American varieties are members of a large natural group. The 

 numerous local types are appreciably different and yet they have so 

 many characters in common that the whole group must be looked 

 upon as an indigenous product instead of a recent importation. The 

 long, narrowly attenuate lobes that render the Hindi calyx so widely 

 different from the Egyptian is a feature commonly accentuated in 

 many of the Mexican and Central American types, though very 

 rarely found in our United States Upland varieties. 



How the Hindi cotton was introduced into Egypt is likely to remain 

 a matter of conjecture, for the history of the Egyptian cotton itself 

 is altogether obscure. That it came to Egypt from India is not to be 

 considered impossible, for in India, as in Egypt, large numbers of 



[Cir. 42] 



