

/ 



JOURNAL 



OF THE 



WASHINGTON ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



Vol. io December 19, 1920 No, 21 



BOTANY. — The history of kidney cotton. Frederick L. Lew- 

 TON, U. S. National Museum.^ 



It is often difficult to determine the botanical identity of the 

 cultivated forms of an important plant like cotton, on account 

 of the extensive transport of seed from one country to another 

 which has taken place, the changes brought about in these 

 forms while adjusting themselves to the new conditions, and 

 the results of natural or artificial crossing. In the case of cotton 

 the meagre and incomplete descriptions of cotton plants usually 

 given in books of travel, and found even in many botanical 

 works, make it extremely difficult to trace the origin and dis- 

 tribution of a large number of distinct species and varieties. 

 The type of cotton, however, known as kidney, chain, or stone 

 cotton, in which the seeds of each cell adhere firmly together 

 in the form of a kidney-shaped mass, instead of lying separated 

 from one another enveloped in more or less cotton lint, has such 

 a unique and constant character in its clusters of seeds that its 

 identification in even very incomplete descriptions is a com- 

 paratively easy matter. 



What appears to be the earliest account of this species was 

 given by Jean de Lery' in his history of a voyage made to the 

 land of Brazil in 1557, which was written in French and pub- 

 hshed in 1578. Under the name of John Lerius, his history 

 was translated and reprinted by Purchas^ in the fourth book 

 of his "Pilgrimes." In this account Lerius tells of the Bom^> 



' Received October 30, 1920. 



- Lery, Jean de. Histoire d'lin voyage fait en la terre du Bresil, aiitrement dite 

 Amerique, ed. i, 208. 1578. 



3 PuRCHAS, Samuel. Piirchas his Pilgrimes, ed. 3, 4: i333- 1625. 



591 



