ILLUSTRATIONS OF INDIAN BOTANY. 63 
by a too constant repetition of the same kind of crop. A similar deterioration formerly took 
place in the West Indies, and to so great an extent, as to lead to the almost total discontinu- 
ance of the cultivation of cotton, which, as in the instance of the African islands, was suc- 
ceeded by sugar, much to the profit of the cultivators. It seems probable, that if the cultiva- 
tion of cotton was resumed in the West Indies from seed carried either from this country or the 
Mauritius, that those islands in which the produce of the sugar cane is beginning, from ong 
culture, to deteriorate, might be much more profitably devoted to the cultivation of cotton. In 
Malta, Spain and Sicily, in all of which places cotton is cultivated to a considerable extent: 
much attention is given to frequent changes of seed, each supplying itself from one or other, of 
the other two. If similar attention was bestowed in India to such interchange of seed between 
remote districts, there can scarcely be a doubt, it appears to me, that all would benefit. The 
cultivators of Bourbon and American cottons will do well to bear in mind the examples of the 
West Indies and the Mauritius, and not only attend to the occasional renewal of their stock of 
seed from the original source, but also to refresh the lands under cultivation every few years, 
by taking not one, but a succession of crops of different kinds off those tracts which have been 
long under cotton cultivation with only short intervals of rest. The other two varieties of 
G. Barbadense here figured, the long and short stapled kinds, or “ Sea Islands” and “ Up- 
lands,” as they are called, are derived from the same stock as the Bourbon, and were with much 
difficulty introduced into North America owing to the shortness of the summer season. The 
former indeed could not be established until the fortunate occurrence of a very mild winter 
permitted the roots to live through it, and produce an early crop of fresh shoots in the spring. 
that country partakes largely of the valuable properties of this kind, is supposed to have been 
derived from the Sea Island stock ; however, judging from some that I had sown in my garden, it 
has either got mixed with the short stapled sort, or is in course of tyansition into it. The latter I 
rather suspect to be the case, but whether or not, it is most certain that, from a quantity of 
Egyptian seed sown in Madras both kinds were produced, and having the distinctive epee 
ofeach strongly marked ; that produced from smooth seeds according in every particular with the 
produce of Sea Island seed received direct from America, even to Its liability to attacks of in- 
sects and consequent blight of the young pods; while that from rough downy seed at ri 
responded with the green seed, or “‘ Uplands” growing on the same plot of ground. The fact 
here stated is an interesting one, and one which it is my intention still further to investigate 
so soon as I can procure a fresh supply of seed direct from Egypt, for that from at BF my 
plants were raised was not such, but saved in Madras, from plants however, rais rom 
ing the origin of the Uplands variety, and the period of its introduction into 
Hees aed . sit so well informed, but I have no hesitation in considering it another 
variety of G. Barbadense, from which in fact it scarcely differs except in oy much let 
size of the pods, the shorter and stronger staple of its wool, the usually 5-lobed eaves, an e 
seeds more ur less clothed with down. This last is a mark of very minor —— as it in a 
known, a single generation may change the character of the seed from ea to shed pees 
of the Bourbon cotton, are generally described as black and smooth, yet i ie y < 
met with one that was not more or less downy, and often not less so, t = . e —— 
green seed. This (Uplands) variety thrives well in. India, producing abun — Pag ary 
large pods, so large indeed that of a number I weighed, the ee 7 = sh 
of 70 grains, and some, picked ones, even exceeded 100, while those from the indigenous 
