G. L. KOTTUR 223 



(ft) The herhaceum cottons all have a some^\hat long-growing period as 

 compared with most of the other cultivated Indian types. When it groM's 

 normally, broach cotton is planted in June, and the picking is not complete 

 till the following March. Kumpta cotton, planted usually in Dharwar in 

 August or September, often is still ripening cotton bolls in the following May. 

 The reason for this very long period of gro^^•th (or rather of boll production) 

 will appear later, as a result of the occurrence of several different kinds of 

 bolls on the plants. 



(b) The seeds are always covered with iuzz} the fuzz being white in 

 this case, and the seeds are relatively large. The result of this latter point 

 is that, compared with other cottons, the percentage of lint to the weight of 

 the seed cotton (ginning percentage) is usually not very large. Taking a large 

 number of samples examined by Gammie,^ and not distinguishing- varieties, 

 the average ginning percentage works out with three fairly largely grown species 

 as follows : — 



1902-03 1904-05 



Per cent. Ter cent. 



Gossypium herbaceum . . . . . . 29*1 29"4 



Gossypium indiciim .. .. .. 31*0 33-1 



Gossypinm 7ieglectum .. .. ,. 31'6 33-5 



Of course, in each of these species the variation is large, and in each case 

 there are strains with much higher ginning perGientage than others. Thus 

 among the herbaceum cottons the ghogari of Gujarat has a high ginning 

 percentage, and the kumpta has a low one, and similar differences occm* among 

 the others. But, as a general rule, the herbaceum cottons have larger seeds 

 and a smaller percentage than most other types of Indian cottons. 



((•) The herbaceum cottons, as a rule, are far more bushy m habit than 

 most other species of cotton. This is the result of their bearinw a number 

 of the so-called monopodia! branches. The bushiness even among the 

 herbacetim cottons varies very much indeed, and the differences among the strains 

 are characteristic, as we shall see, of the varieties grown in different regions. 

 But though these differences occur, yet even the less bushy strains of herbaceum 

 cotton usually appear far more bushy than other species. Other cottons, 

 in fact, bear their cotton almost entirely on sympodial branches ; the 

 herbaceum cottons bear their bolls also in large measure on the monopodia or on 

 the axillary branches. One of fhe results of the fact that bolls are produced 



^ Excejit in one form of herhaceum cottons from Madras (see Gamniie, I.e.). 



2 " Indian Cottons," 190.'), pp. 21-28. Gannnie now thinks (private coninuinication to 

 the autlior) that these figures should be revi.sed and tliat Gosttypium indiciim has probably on 

 the whole a lower ginning percentage than Gossypitim herhaceum. 



