THE COTTON OF THE HOPI INDIANS: A NEW SPECIES 

 OF GOSSYPIUM 



By FREDERICK L. LEWTON 



(With Five Plates) 



INTRODUCTION 



The origin and growth of cotton cultivation in the United States 

 has received the careful attention of historians, ethnologists, sta- 

 tisticians and others, and much has been written concerning the devel- 

 opment of this great industry of our country. 1 The identity and de- 

 scription of those varieties which laid the foundation of the American 

 Upland cotton are questions which have received the attention of 

 several writers, notably Watt, 2 Fletcher, 3 and de Lasteyrie. 4 The 

 types of plants which compose the field crop as it is grown to-day 

 have been systematically studied only within the last few years/' 



To what extent the cotton cultivated at the present time in the 

 United States has been influenced by the types introduced by the colo- 

 nists of several European' nations, by the tropical species imported 

 from Mexico, Central America and the West Indies, or by the types of 

 cotton native within the present boundaries of the United States when 

 the white man came, it would be difficult to say. It is believed, how- 

 ever, that the last-named factor has had, if any, the least effect upon 

 the present-day field crop. The following notes on a type of cotton 

 long in cultivation by the Pueblo Indians of the Southwest are offered 

 as a contribution to the study of American cottons : 



ANTIQUITY OF COTTON CULTURE IN THE SOUTHWEST 



That cotton was used and cultivated in the southwestern part of the 

 United States in prehistoric times has been shown by several explorers 



1 Payne, E. J. : History of the New World Called America, 1892, pp. 406, 

 408-411, 416. 



Handy, R. B. : Office of Experiment Stations, U. S. Dept. Agriculture, 

 Bulletin 33, 1896, pp. 17-43. 

 Donnell, E. J.: Chronological and Statistical History of Cotton, 1872. 



2 Watt, Geo.: Wild and Cultivated Cotton Plants of the World, 1909, pp. 

 17-22. 



3 Fletcher, F. : Cairo Sci. Journ., 1909, vol. 3, pp. 263-268. 

 4 de Lasteyrie, C. P.: Du Cotonnier et de sa Culture, 1808. 



5 Tyler, F. J.: Bur. Plant Industry, U. S. Dept. \gric, Bull. 163, 1910. 

 Duggar, J. F. : Alabama Agric. Exp. Sta., Bull. 140, 1907. 



Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 60, No. 6 



