THE INDIAN COTTONS. 
By Proressor G, A. GAMMIE, F.L.s. 
Keonomic Botanist to the Government of Bombay. 
CHAPTER LI. 
GENERAL REMARKS. 
Tue cultivated cottons of India possess the following charac- 
ters 19 common. Erect, large or small shrubs, with long tap 
roots and few lateral roots. Stems woody and brittle below, 
herbaceous toward extremities, usually wandlike ; growth cymose 
from the first so that the whole plant forms a Sympodium ; inner 
bark of long tough fibres. Branches ascending or spreading, 
becoming successively shorter upwards, their disposition affording 
valuable diagnostic characters ; all young parts except the flowers, 
covered with partially deciduous, hirsute, simple and stellate hairs. 
Leaves membranous or subcoriaceous, varying from entire to 1- 3- 5- 
7-lobed, palminerved, margins of lobes entire or sinuate ; acces- 
sory lobes often rising from or above the sinuses ; the central rib 
and usually the rib on either side of it with a yland on the under 
surface. Stipu’es faleate, entire or toothed. (The leaves of seed. 
lings and those appearing during the rainy season are larger, more 
flaccid, with more distinct basal lobes, folds and sinuosities than 
those which are developed after a partial shedding in the cold 
weather. Inflorescence cymose, of single flowers on terminal or 
secondary and tertiary axes, erect or spreading, always pendulous 
in fruit; peduncle and pedicel short, trigonous ; znvoluere or 
epiculyx of three bracteoles connate at their broadly cordate 
bases, margins rounded, with deep or shallow teeth, which either 
extend over the whole margin or are confined to the apex, which 
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