XXV. MALVACEiE. 115 



intercostal spaces beneath, sometimes with a few minute peltate scales 

 on one or both surfaces ; petioles 2-4 in. long ; stipules subulate, 

 deciduous. Pedicels 2-3 in. long, axillary, shorter or longer than the 

 petioles. Involucral bracts or o, lanceolate, shorter than the calyx, 

 caducous. Calyx cupular, truncate, covered with minute peltate scales ; 

 teeth minute, sometimes obscure. Corolla 2-3 in. in diam., yellow 

 with purple base. Capsules globose, 1 in. in diam., covered with 

 minute peltate scales, surrounded at the base by the persistent 

 calyx. Seeds § in. long, ovoid, channelled along the back, pubescent. 

 Fl. B. I. V. 1, p. 345: Grab. Cat. p. 15; Dalz. & Gibs. p. 18; Talb. 

 Trees, Bomb. p. 19 ; Woodr. in Journ. Bomb. Nat. v. 11 (1897) p. 128 ; 

 Watt, Diet. Econ. Prod. v. G,part 4, p. 45. — Flowers in the cold season. 

 The Tulip or Portia tree ; the Ehendy tree. Veen. Bhencli-lce-jhdr. 



Wild along the sea-shores of the districts soutli of Bombay. Often planted as a 

 roadside tree ; abundant along the road which passes through the Marine Lines, 

 Bombay. Konkan : Talbot; Homhaj, Capt. Gchiirnel, Cooke I, Shrivardlian, Woodrow. 

 N. Kanaka: along the sea-shore, Talbot. S. M. Country: Dharwar, planted as a 

 roadside tree, Cooke ! 



The wood is fine-grained and tough and has been used for gun-stocks and cart- 

 wheels ; the bark affords a strong fibre, which is not, however, of commercial import- 

 ance. Consult Watt, Diet. Econ. Prod. 1. c. — Distkib. Tropical Asia and Africa, the 

 Pacific islands ; maritime. 



13. GOSSYPIUM, Linn. 



Erect herbs or shrubs, sometimes subarboreous. Leaves 3-9-lobed, 

 rarely entire. Involucral bracts 3, large, usually cordate, incised, toothed 

 or entire, sprinkled with black dots. Calyx truncate or shortly 5- 

 toothed, sprinkled with black dots. Staminal-tube bearing numerous 

 filaments below the naked, or very rarely, antheriferous apex. Ovary 

 5-celled ; cells many-ovuled ; style club-shaped, S-furrow-ed ; stigmas 5. 

 Capsule loculicidally 3-5-valved. Seeds densely clothed with cottony 

 hairs ; cotyledons much folded, sprinkled with black dots. — Distrib. 

 Throughout the tropics of the Old and New World ; species few. 



The synonymy of the forms of Goi^supium is much complicated from 

 the fact that, owing to the readiness with which the plant admits of 

 hybridisation, many of the commercial cottons are hybrids. The re- 

 searches of Todaro have recently supplied important additions to our 

 knowledge of the cultivated cottons of the world, and much valuable 

 information, as to the history and cultivation of the Indian cottons, may 

 be obtained from Watt's Dictionary of the Economic Products of India, 

 v. 4, pp. 1-174. 



Flowers wholly yellow, or yellow with purple base ; invol. bracts 

 laciniate. 



Cotton adherent to the seeds. 



Seeds without underlying down 1. C Stocksii. 



Seeds with underlying down 2. G. herbaccum. 



Cotton easily separable from the seeds 3. G. barbadense. 



Flowers wholly purple, or j^ellow with purple base ; invol. bracts 



subentire or toothed, not laciniate 4. G. arboremn. 



1. Gossypium Stocksii, Mast, in Hool. f. Fl. B. I. v. 1 (1874) 

 p. 346. Shrubby, branching-, often climbing. Leaves 1-2| in. in diam., 

 orbicular, cordate, 3-lobed, the lateral lobes again more or less deeply 

 divided so as to make a 5-lobed leaf, mucronate, palmately nerved, more 

 or less lomentose and with black glandular dots ; petioles ^ Ij in, long, 



i2 



