Cook: Malfornialions of Cotton Plants 



335 



short-jointed. The Itaf surfaces were 

 uneven and Iiuckled, with the color 

 varied from a finely mottled pale yel- 

 lowish green to much dee]:)er green in 

 Ijands along the veins. Many of the 

 involucres were al)ortive, consisting of 

 a single hract. The possibility of a 

 phvsiological. chlorosis disease, due to 

 excess of lime, was suggested by the 

 verv pale color, but the pur])!e "native" 

 cotton had normal dark foliage. An- 

 other form of mosaic disease may be 

 indicated, with less reduction and dis- 

 tortion. Ijut the color reactions much 

 more pronounced. 



Haitian Cotton Not Related to Sea 

 Island Cotton 



Visitors from the United States 

 often suppose that the Haitian cotton 

 belongs to the Sea Island type because 

 the plants grow tall and the flowers are 

 golden yellow, with purple spots at the 

 base of the petals. Also the seeds aro 

 smaller and generally less fuzzy than in 

 American U])land cotton. But those 

 who are familiar with Sea Island cot- 

 ton will see at once that the leaves of 

 the Haitian cotton are entirely difTer- 

 ent. being relatively broad and short, 

 and usually with three lobes instead of 

 the five lobes of well developed leaves 

 of Sea Island cotton. Also the lobes 

 are short and rather divergent, not 

 separated b\- deep cuts nor with the 

 lobes i^artially folded, to render the 

 upper side of the leaves deeply chan- 

 neled. Thus with respect to the leaves 

 the Haitian cotton appears much more 

 similar to the Upland type, especially 

 the i)lants that are somewhat hairy. 

 Also the bolls are of a light green color, 

 more like those of Upland cotton. 



In realitv the resemblance of the 

 Haitian cotton to our American types 

 is entirely superficial. No such cotton 

 has been found in other parts of Amer- 

 ica that have been explored, in the 

 continental regions. The Haitian cotton 

 is not really a native species, but prob- 

 ably was brought from the East Indies 

 during the period of the French occu- 



l)ation. It un<loul)te(ll\- belongs to the 

 species that is known botanically as 

 Gossypiuiii f^iirf>itniscclis, and usually 

 is called I>()urb()n cotton, from the Is- 

 land of Bourbon, now generally known 

 as Reunion, east of Madagascar in the 

 Indian Ocean, whence it is supposed to 

 have been carried by French colonists 

 to different parts of the world. 



The salient characteristics of this 

 tvpe of cotton are the tall growth and 

 perennial hab't. the purple color of the 

 stalks, branches and petioles, with 

 prominent black oil-glands, the broad, 

 short leaves mostly with three short, 

 divergent lobes, the short calyx, the 

 large yellow, purple-spotted flowers, 

 the rather small oblong-elliptic bolls, 

 more or less apiculate, and the small, 

 slightly fuzzy seeds. 



Though apparently not cultivated in 

 anv of the more important p"oducing 

 countries, the Bourbon cotton has been 

 widelv distributed in the tropical 

 regions, especially in the Old World. 

 It "is grown to a slight extent in India 

 and. "according to ^Ir. Sampson, is 

 there considered immune to the attacks 

 of the insects that in other types of 

 cotton cause a serious distortion of the 

 leaves, as already stated. But die in- 

 sect injuries in India ap])arently are 

 not the same as thore in Haiti, since 

 the cotton in India is said t. recover 

 coniDlete'v in the di'y season after the 

 Jassidae disappear, whereas in Haiti 

 the disease apparently cont'nues in un- 

 abated form long after the agents of 

 infection have ceased their work. 



Where recovery is possible, as m 

 the distortion caused by plant lice, the 

 theory of permanent infection by a 

 parasitic organism would seem less ap- 

 plicable, so that two classes of diseases 

 might be distinguished, as recoverable 

 or as permanently infected. Abnormal 

 behavior or diseased conditions of cot- 

 ton have l)een described from the 

 Virgin Islands and elsewhere in the 

 West Indies, but without definite indi- 

 cations of the smalling disease. 



