504 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1962 



wealth of cotton fabrics of outstanding design and technical com- 

 petence has been recovered, preserved by the dry soil of the desert 

 graveyards. From the moister climates of Central America, nothing 

 comparable has survived, though it is known from the liistorical 

 records that cotton provided clothing for the people. As in the Old 

 World, so in the New; the ancient cottons were perennial shrubs. 

 Perennials of the South American G. harhadense spread throughout 

 the continent as far south as northern Argentina, but apart from 

 a Brazilian form with large leaves, large flowers, and large bolls and 

 seeds fused into a kidney-shaped mass, there are no well-defined geo- 

 graphical races among the perennials of G. harbddense. 



Differentiation among the perennials of G. hirsutum is much more 

 pronounced. Two miportant perennial races were early recognized. 

 One of these, race marie-galante^ includes the largest cottons of all. 

 On the coasts of the Spanish Main, from Panama to Trinidad, and 

 thence north to the Greater Antilles and south to northern Brazil, 

 very large shrubs or small trees up to 20 feet in height are to be found 

 in houseyards and in small cultivations, and sometimes wild among 

 dry coastal vegetation. These were the basis of the early cotton 

 cultivations of the West Indies, and the imprint of human selective 

 forces is still to be detected in their modern descendants [26]. Out- 

 side the Americas, race marie-galante is known only from Ghana [16], 

 where it was introduced from the West Indies by the Basle 

 missionaries. 



The second important perennial race of G. hirsutum is race punc- 

 tatum, a much smaller, bushy cotton, to be found round the coasts of 

 the Gulf of Mexico from Yucatan to Florida and the Bahamas. It 

 has been recorded infrequently from Cuba, Haiti, and Puerto Eico, 

 but not from Jamaica or the Lesser Antilles. Race punctatum was 

 introduced into West Africa about the end of the 17th century. 

 There it was very successful, and spread across the continent south of 

 the Sahara, completely replacing the Old World cottons as a raw 

 material for the local spinning and weaving industry. It was also 

 introduced into the island of Bourbon (Reunion) by the French, and 

 taken thence to the Malabar coast of India by the East India Com- 

 pany. In the 1930's it was still to be found mixed with a perennial 

 form of G. arboreum race indicum in the Nadam crop of JSIadras. 

 British settlers took it to northern Australia ; their settlement was a 

 failure, but the cotton survived, and was collected about 1930 from 

 the neighborhood of Port Essington. 



Between 1945 and 1948 three expeditions collected extensively in 

 the center of origin of G. MrsutuTn in Central America. Apart from 

 a very few, apparently introduced, forms of G. harbadense^ all the 

 cottons collected were forms of G. hirsutum. This material revealed 

 a geographical differentiation formerly unsuspected. Northern Gua- 



