lewton: history of kidney cotton 



595 



author describes one indigenous and four introduced species 

 of cotton. Of one of the latter he speaks as follows: 



"The culture of another species, which differs 

 but little from the preceding, has been adopted 

 by some colonists, it is called the Stone cotton, 

 Cotonnier pierre {Gossypium lapideum Tussac), 

 or cotton of Cayenne. In this species the seeds 

 are strongly united together and form a little 

 block which is easily separated from the wool. 

 This is composed of very long and very strong 

 filaments, and on this account it gains in weight 

 .what it loses in fineness."^ 



From the settlements of the Portuguese 

 in India, and the activities of the East India 

 Company in bringing seed from South 

 America for planting on the coast of Coro- 

 mandel and in Bengal before 1780, kidney 

 cotton became thoroughly established in 

 India, as shown by specimens in European 

 herbaria collected by Dr. Hove as early as 

 1787. It thus attracted the attention of W. 

 Roxburgh, who, in his "Hortus Bengalensis" 

 of 1 8 14, catalogs a species of Gossypium as 

 G. acuminatum, but gives no description.^ In 

 Roxburgh's "Flora Indica," however, which 

 appeared in 1832, he gives enough description 

 to show that he intends this name for kidney 

 cotton, the specific name "acuminatum" 

 being chosen because of the "much pointed" capsules. ^'^ Rox- 

 burgh believed this cotton to be uncultivated and a native of 

 northwestern India. 



John Vaupell, an Englishman who traveled throughout Guzerat 

 in western India in 1838, published" two years later an account 

 of the cottons of that region, and mentions having found several 



» Tussac, F. R. de. Flore des Antilles 2: 67. 1818. 



' Roxburgh, W. Hortus Bengalensis 51. 1814. 

 ^^ Roxburgh, W. Flora Indica 3: 186. 1832. 



'• Vaupell, John. Cottons of Guzerat, Trans. Agric. Hort. Soc. Bombay. 

 1840. 



Fig. 2. — Seed clusters 

 of two varieties of 

 kidney cotton which 

 were distinguished 

 by Rohr (1791) and 

 named by Raf- 

 inesque (1838). 



a . The Guiana variety : 

 Gossypium guyanense 



verum Raf. 



b. The Brazihan var- 

 iety : G. guyanense 

 brasihense Raf. 



Original drawing from 

 photograph of seeds 

 planted in Arizona, 

 1908. 



