24 EXPERIMENTS IN THE HYBRIDISING OF INDIAN COTTONS, 
THE INTERPRETATION OF THE RESULTS. 
It is generally considered that flowers of cotton plants are 
habitually self-fertilised. Sir George Watt quotes the Danish 
colonist Rohr* as observing in 1790 that ‘“ Fecundation ordin- 
arily takes place in Gossypium” before the flower has fully ex- 
panded : the same writer later on speaks hopefully of hybridising 
experiments with cotton,—‘‘a plant that through the early 
maturity of its stamens (as in Mendel’s classic experiments with 
Pisum sativum) is fully under control.” + Mr. Charles Benson 
told me as the result of his long experience of cotton in Southern 
India, that it is practically always self-fertilised. Other officers of 
the Agricultural Department have said the same, pointing out that 
the ryots usually sow mixed seed, and that the absence of inter- 
mediate forms shows that crossing does not occur. 
Professor Gammie, in his classification of Indian cottons, 
1903 and 1905, emphasised the same point. For these reasons it 
was not thought necessary to cover the flowers, to make sure of 
obtaining self-fertilised seed for the second and subsequent 
generations. It would, moreover, have entailed more time and 
labour than I could give. A few flowers in the first hybrid 
generation were covered, but the plants so obtained (Bed. 0-0) 
did not show any less variation than those from uncovered flowers. 
Yet I think that a certain amount of crossing{ did oceur with 
my plants, the result of which was most apparent in the offspring 
of the first hybrid families, the latter being each of a few plants: 
only and in beds close together. The presence of the few yellow 
Howers in a bed which one would expect to be all white and of 
neglectum leaves among herbaceums may, I think, have been 
due to accidental inter-crossing by the insects which visited the 
flowers in large numbers. Such inter-crossing almost certainly 
does occur even if only rarely, among cottons in the field. 
Mr. Sampson, the Deputy Director of Agriculture, pointed out to 
* Watt, (1)., p. 338, 
+ Ibid, p. 341. 
+ 
~ Compare also Shull (13) ‘‘On Mendelian inheritance of sunflowers.” Botanical Gazette, 
Vol. XLV, No. 2, Feb. 1908, p. 106, 
