SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. OO 



for use in experiments on Mendelian inheritance in cotton. He re- 

 ports * this species as blooming earlier than the others in the experi- 

 ment, the plants being in full bloom in 70 days and the first boll 

 ripening 100 days after the planting of the seed. 



In spite of the small bolls and short, sparse lint of the Hopi cotton, 

 its extreme earliness and prolificness under very arid conditions may 

 make it of value in breeding new types of cottons for special conditions. 



DESCRIPTION OF HOPI COTTON 



The plants studied and from which the description given on page 9 

 is drawn were all grown from the seed obtained by Dr. Hough and 

 Mr. Kent from Tuba, Arizona, and Mr. Thackeray from Oraibi, to 

 which reference has already been made. Seed of Hopi cotton was 

 also received from Mr. C. R. Jefferis, Superintendent of the Western 

 Navajo School at Tuba, Arizona; from Mr. Lorenzo Hubbel, trader, 

 of Ream's Canyon, Arizona, and from Dr. J. Walter Fewkes, of the 

 Bureau of American Ethnology. The last lot of seed was collected by 

 Mr. Thos. B. Keam at Oraibi village in 1889 and was included in the 

 Keam collection purchased by Dr. Fewkes for the Hemenway collec- 

 tion in the Peabody Museum at Cambridge, Mass. Other specimens 

 of what appears to be the same cotton have been received from Mr. 

 E. W. Hudson, at the Pima Reservation, Sacaton, Arizona ; and Mrs. 

 Matilda Coxe Stevenson from Tonyo Camp, Espaiiola, New Mexico. 



The Hopi cotton is so conspicuously different from other species 

 and especially the American Upland cottons that it is believed to 

 represent a new species, the particular diagnostic characters of which 

 may be expressed as follows : 



( 1 ) Yellow green color of the whole plant ; even the pulvinus of 

 the leaves is yellow or orange instead of red. 



(2) Low branching, almost prostrate habit ; fruiting branches often 

 as low as the third or fourth node. 



(3) Paired fruiting branches, and often an axillary vegetative 

 branch from the same node on the stem. 



(4) Zigzag character of stem and branches. 



(5) Swollen nodes of the stem and especially the branches. 



(6) Numerous entire leaves, especially upon secondary branches. 



(7) Leaf nectaries close to base of leaf blade, 5-7 mm. distant. 



(8) 1 .arge size of scars left by fallen leaves and flowers. 



Yearbook Khedivial Agricultural Society, Cairo, 1906, p. 18. 



