G. L. KOTTUR 



239 



Mendelian factors. A long bract eole is, in fact, dominant over a short, and 

 a broad one is dominant over a narrow one. The number of teeth, and their 

 arrangement and incision varies much on the same pi ant. The teeth vary 

 from four to eight, and there is often some difficulty in finding out the rudi- 

 mentary projections, which have to be separately counted. It is hoped to 

 study the variation of these bracteole characters further, now that pm-e lines 

 have been obtained, and have been crossed. 



The variation in the length and breadth of the bracteole of open flowers on 

 different kumpta plants is as follows : — 



Length and breadth of bracteoles. 



The attached frequency curve (Fig. 5) shows that the extent of variation 

 is not very wide. The mean length of the bracteole is 18"9 mm., the mean 

 breadth is 16 "5 mm. 



Again the curve of length of the bracteole is multimodal, and that of the 

 breadth shows evidence that it might also be so in reality. The conclusion 

 from this is again in accordance with what has been noted for the previous 

 factors measured. 



(4) The flower characters. Perhaps the two most important characters 

 in the cotton flower, from a breeding point of view, are the length of the petals, 

 and the length of the style. The petals may be, in extreme cases, small 

 and almost closed in the folds of the bracteoles, or they may be large and 

 very prominent. In kumpta cotton, however, they are always large, showing 

 only a small amomit of variation. 



The length of the style, likewise, varies much in different varieties, and 

 in the extreme case of some tree cottons, it projects over an inch above the 

 staminal column — in which case the chance of cross -poll in at ion is very great. 

 The stigma of the soft Peruvian tree cottons may often be seen without a 

 single grain of pollen on it for a long time after the opening of the petals. 

 It is probably on this account that no two plants of this variety agree in their 

 characters, and the variation is very great. A short style will, on the other 



