THE WORLD'S COTTONS — HUTCHINSON 



503 



day — race slneiise — are the earliest-fruiting forms in the species, and 

 have developed a distinctive character that marks them off from the 

 two main Indian types, hengalense and indlcum. 



COTTONS OF THE NEW WORLD 



Cotton was grown and used extensively in South and Central Amer- 

 ica when the New World was first discovered (fig, 3). It is impos- 

 sible now to assess adequately the relative importance of the southern 

 and the central regions. From the coastal strip in Peru, a great 



Figure 3. — Distribution of the New World cottons at the time of Columbus. 



