592 lewton: history of kidney cotton 



basin cotton shrubs with seeds "close joined and verie much 

 pressed together after the form of a man's kidnie." He says 

 ft was known to the barbarians by the name of ameniiou, a 

 name which is still used in practically the same form by the 

 Tupi tribes of Brazil. L'Obel,^ in 1576, endeavored to improve 

 on the pictures of the Levant cotton published some years 

 earlier by Fuchsius and by Matthiolus, by adding a figure of a 

 cluster of seven seeds arranged in a kidney-shaped mass. He 

 must have become familiar with the seed arrangement in Bra- 

 zilian kidney cotton through material brought to Europe by 

 traders or explorers, and thought that this was true of all cottons. 

 The earHest accurate description and illustration of kidney 

 cotton seems to be that given in 1675 by Giacomo Zanoni,^ 

 who calls it "Bambagia arborea di Pernambuco." His figure 

 is reproduced on the opposite page. This cotton, undoubtedly 

 a native of Brazil and Guiana originally, was soon spread over 

 the tropical regions of the world by the aerly Portuguese navigators, 

 and became thoroughly estabHshed in Africa, India, Siam, the 

 Philippines, and many other countries. Sir Hans Sloane tells 

 in 1696 of kidney cotton having been brought to Jamaica from 

 Brazil by James Lancaster after the defeat of Pernambuco in 



1594- 



JuUus Philip Benjamin von Rohr carried on in the island 

 of St. Croix, between 1786 and 1790, a most extensive series 

 of cotton experiments, an account of which he published in 

 1 79 1 and 1793 under the title "Anmerkungen iiber den Cattun- 

 bau zum nuzen der Daenischen Westindeschen Colonien." 

 He grew and examined as many kinds of cotton as he could 

 obtain by travel in the West Indies and South America, and 

 by the help of friends in other parts of the world. He made 

 notes on the character and behavior of these cottons, recorded 

 their yields, and carried out extensive breeding experiments 

 and fertilizer tests. Rohr describes under the names Guiana 

 cotton, Brazil cotton, and Porto Rico cotton, three types in 



* L'ObeIv, Matthias de. Plant, seu Stirp. Hist., 370. 1576. 

 ^ Zanoni, Giacomo. Istoria Botanica, 40-44. PI. 16. 1675. 



