222 KUMPTA COTTON AND ITS IMPROVEMENT 



and western Asia.i It forms one of the chief cultivated cottons of India^ 

 and it is groMTX in China, and also in Persia. Beyond this, there is little or 

 no clear or definite information- Gammie states that samples from Turkey, 

 Greece, Armenia, Persia, Cephalonia, Crete, Khorasan, Afghanistan and Gilgit 

 appear to belong to this species but then adds, "they may just as well be con- 

 sidered forms of Gossypium ohtusifoliinn, Koxb."^ In India, however, its 

 cultivation is very widespread. Typical Gossypium herhaceum is grown as 

 lalio in Kathiawar and Northern Gujarat, as broach, mrat, hahanmi, gliogari 

 in Gujarat, and as humpta and the other commercial types mentioned above 

 {see page 221) in the centre of Peninsular India. Types of the cotton plant 

 distinguished by Gammie as separate varieties occur in the mungari or hellai, 

 uppam, northerns of Cuddapa, as a mixture in karunganni, and one or two 

 other kinds in Madras, and in the ivagad or sahalio of Gujarat. 



Gossypium herhaceum has been supposed by some to be a cultivated 

 form of Gossypium ohtusifolium^ which is fomid wild in many places in the 

 Southern Maratha Country (Badami, Gokak, etc.), and also in Smd. This 

 wild plant is declared by Cooke to be a wild condition of Gossypium herhacemn 

 var. Wightianum, or a hybridized form with perhaps Gossypium neglectum^ 

 It is midoubtedly, however, Gossypium ohtusifolium simply. 



The botanical characters of the typical Gossypium herhaceum have been 

 defined in detail by Gamm,ie {I.e.). The most characteristic featm^es fi-om 

 this point of view are the fact that the basal branches are long and spreading, 

 which causes Leake'^ to class this species among the monopodial types of 

 cotton. The corolla is yellow, with a black eye, fading to yellow suffused 

 with red, somewhat larger than the bracteoles. The type is, in fact, well 

 known, though systematic authorities are by no means yet in agreement as 

 to the name which properly belongs to this species. Watt classes most of the 

 herhaceum cottons under discussion as Gossypium ohtusijolium var. 

 Wightianum. The exact name given to the group of cottons, as defined by 

 Gammie and others, is not perhaps an important matter. 



There are, however, several characteristics of the various types known 

 together as Gossypiwn herhaceum in cultivation, which are important in 

 considering this type as an agricultural plant. They are as follows : — 



^ De CandoUe considers that probably it was originally limited to the south and east 

 of India. 



2 The distribution is well described in Watt's " Wild and Cultivated Cotton Plants of the 

 World," pp. 143-153 (1907). See also Cooke. U. S. A. Dept. Agric. Bur. Plant hid. Bvll. No. SS. 



3 Dalzell and Gibson. " Bombay Flora," p. 8 (Supi^lement), 1861. 



* Cooke. "Flora of the Presidency of Bombay," London, 1903, p. 117. 

 ' Leake. Journal of Genetics, 1911, Vol. I, p. 209» 



