HOWARD, HOWARD AND ABDUR RAHMAN. 315 



4. Cotton. 



Little attention has been paid to cotton from the Botanical 

 point of view by the writers at Piisa as this crop does not thrive in 

 North Bihar. In 1907, a collection of Indian cottons, sent by 

 Professor Gammie from Poona, was sown in the Botanical area 

 at Piisa. These cultures were by no means uniform and appeared 

 to contain several natural crosses. The seed of one of these aber- 

 rant plants found in one of the cultures of Gossijpium arborevm, 

 L., was sown separately in 1908 by Mr. G. P. Hector and gave 

 rise to very variable offspring, clearly proving that the parent plant 

 was of hybrid origin. 



The first and most extensive observations on this subject in 

 India have been made by Leake' at Cawnpore who sums up his 

 results as follows : " It is as yet impossible to state with certainty 

 to what extent cross-fertilization takes place. The evidence so 

 far obtained indicates that natural crossing occurs with sufficient 

 frequency to render it impossible to keep types pure when they are 

 grown in the proximity of other types." Subsequently Dobbs" 

 at Lyallpur independently made some interesting observations 

 on this subject which are best given in the author's own words. 

 He states : "By separate sowing on the farm of seed from single 

 know^n parents evidence has been obtained, conclusive to anyone 

 familiar with the common reactions caused by hybridization, that 

 a very large proportion of the cottons on the farm, particularly 

 those that are most vigorous, are crosses between distinct varieties 

 within each of the above main types, e.g., seedlings grown from a 

 supposed ' Khaki ' American parent having a light brown lint 

 gave ' Khaki,' light brown and pure white lint in approximately 

 Mendelian proportions. Again ' Dharwar ' cotton consists, on the 

 farm, of innumerable varieties, early and late, productive and 

 unproductive, of which half do not breed true to type, and it may 

 be inferred that this variation has arisen by hybridization. In 



1 Lcike, Jonrnal and P roceed i /if/.<i of the A-fi'iHt- S'iriift/ nf Jicm/til {Xcir Sific.t), Vol. IV, 

 No. 1, 1908, p. lit. 



2 Dobbs, A'lnval liepott of the Li/dlljnir Ayiioilturtd IStotiou for rJU7-05<, Lahore, lHUf*. 



