32 WEEVIL-RESTSTING ADAPTATIONS OF COTTON. 



bnicts to iiu)isten the ed<res of the involucre. As yet. however, the 

 purpose of these adaptations in the Asiatic cottons is entirely 

 unknown, both the holl \Yeevil and the kelep being absent in the 

 Eastern Hemisphere. 



The botanical honioloo-y of the inner nectaries is somewhat diU'erent 

 from that of tlie outer. They correspond in all probability with the 

 nectaries which are found on the calyx of some of the species of 

 Hibiscus, but there the calyx is large and covers the buds and each 

 sepal bears a nectary near its middle. 



NECTARIES OF (iUATEMALAN SEA ISLAND COTTON. 



A variety of Kidney cotton planted in small quantities by the 

 Indians at Trece Aguas. (ruatemala. has the outer nectaries verj^ 

 variable in size and commonly (luite wanting." The inside necta- 

 ries seem always to be developed and are unusually large, being ex- 

 ceeded, as far as known, only l)y those of the Asiatic varieties. The 

 nectar secretion is also very abundant. No weevils were found upon 

 this cotton, nor any keleps. 



On the other hand, the free-seeded Sea Island cotton found by 

 iNIr. Kinsler in the San Lucas '' neighborhood, not far from the 

 kelep cotton culture of Secanquim. reverses again the tendency of the 

 Kidney cotton to the great development of the inner nectaries and 

 the suppression of the outer. The latter are, in the San Lucas cotton, 

 nearly always present, of rather large size, and of a red color. The 

 inner nectaries are often rudimentary or quite absent. 



CONTINCED SECRETION OF NECTAR. 



Our Upland varieties commonh' secrete nectar only at the time of 

 flowering, but in the Kekchi cotton the liquid continues to exude 

 until the boll is nearly or quite full gi'own, thus securing the protec- 



a This variety not infrequently produces flowers with only two linicts. closely 

 nitpressecl. like a clam shell. In one such inst.-nu-e there were two nectaries at the 

 base of each bract, or. to be more exact, two separate nectaries on one side and 

 one partly divided nectary on the other, as though the nectary belonging to the 

 deficient third bract had separated into two parts and joined the other necta- 

 ries. 



6 This San Lucas Sea Island cotton is probably the variety in which the 

 weevils were found abundant in I'.Mii'. when the first intimation was gained 

 that the Kekchi cotton had means of protection against the weevil. The San 

 Lucas cotton is attacked not only by weevils, but by another long-bodied in- 

 sect larva, evidently lepidopterous. that gnaws through the boll at the ends, 

 both from above and below, and eats out the seeds. Nothing of the sort has 

 been seen in the fields protected by the keleps. -There was also noticetl in this 

 cotton an occasional abnormality closely comparable to the navel orange. 

 Kudimentary parts like a small secondary boll were found in the middle of 

 bolls otherwise normal. The orange tree and the cotton plant belong, it may 

 be remembereil, to related families. 



