COTTON 



of the most exquisite oi all is the seed of Bignonia. The 

 Dahlia fruit has also a flying wing, and a great many others 

 might be mentioned. Major Baden-Powell experimented 

 with kites, which were supposed to raise a man high enough 

 in the air to take observations of the enemy's movements. 

 But a most exquisite " kite " is that of the Lime tree. The 

 little fruit is hung from a broad, flying bract, and as it very 

 slowly sinks to the ground it solemnly turns round and 

 round. That is because the pressure of the air acts on the 

 flat bract just as it does on an aeroplane, and forces it to 

 revolve. So the fruit remains a long time in the air, and 

 may be carried to nearly a hundred yards away from its 

 parent tree. 



The Traveller's Joy {Clematis) and the Cotton have 

 their seeds covered all over by many entangled hairs, which 

 act like a piece of fluff*, so that the wind blows the seed 

 away. 



No one has discovered the original wild Cotton plant. 

 The robes of the priests in Egyptian temples were made of 

 it. It was introduced into Spain by the Arabs when they 

 invaded that country. When the Spaniards attacked the 

 half-civilized Indian people of Central and South America, 

 they found cotton was regularly cultivated there. Its 

 history in England is rather interesting. In the days of 

 Queen Elizabeth the great English industry was the pro- 

 duction of woollen cloth from Yorkshire sheep. A penalty 

 of £20 was imposed, even as late as 1720, on any person 

 who imported or even wore cotton cloths. Yet this was 

 unable to stop the growth of the trade which, thanks to the 

 Flemings and Huguenots who took refuge from religious 

 persecution in this country, eventually became our gigantic 

 textile industry employing millions of factory hands. 



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