SURFACE FIBERS 225 
Fig. 214.—Upland Cotton (Gossypium herbaceum, Mallow Family, Malva- 
cee). Plant in flower and fruit. (Baillon.)—An annual in cultivation, 
growing 1-2 m. tall; leaves downy; flowers yellow; fruit dry; seed 
brown.. Native home, probably India. 
part of the inner bark of stems; (3) woody fibers, composed 
entirely of wood; (4) mixed fibers, containing both woody 
and bast-like fibers; and (5) pseudo-fibers, which consist 
either of entire plants or of parts lacking both wood and 
bast. 
67. Surface fibers occur upon stems, leaves, fruit, and 
seeds. The only one of much economic importance is cotton. 
This forms the woolly covering of the seeds of several species, 
principally the upland cotton (Figs. 214, 215) and the Sea 
Island cotton (Fig..216). The former is the chief fiber plant 
of the world. To-day it is cultivated throughout the tropics 
and very generally in subtropical regions. The southern 
United States produce more than all the rest of the world. 
Two thousand six hundred years ago it was raised in India 
