48 CKOSS-FKKTILISATION IX THE INDIAN COTTONS. 



iirtifli' on (Jossypiiiin.* I"'i()in their ronsidoiatioi) as well as fiom 

 the results of iiiiuli personal oltservation, he has formed tlie opinion, 

 expressed repeatedly throughout the article, that hybridisation has 

 played a large pait in the history of the cotton jilant of India and 

 even that many of the widely cultivated forms owe their origin to this 

 process. Later, in a more recent woik.t he expresses the same view. 



Middletonhassuhjectcd the Imli.iii cottons to a detailed examina- 

 tion covering a numljcr of years. In the record of his result.s:{: he 

 gives uo definite expression of opinion on the extent of cross-ferti- 

 lisation, but it is clear that he believes it to occur with a freciuency 

 which makes the origin of many cultivated races by this means 

 possible. Thus of the Nadam cotton of Madras he writes, " I 

 suppose Nadam to be " a hy])iid with a strong strain of G. arborcmn, 

 the other parent being G. herhac'iim or G. hidiciiin," and the 

 possibility of an origin of numerous other cultivated races by 

 similar means is indicated. 



Fyson,§ as a result of a seiies ol experiments, was led to believe 

 that a certain amount of natural crossing occurs. 'J1ius he fount! the 

 white-flowered parents from a cross between white-and yellow- 

 flowered forms gave a few yellow-flowered offspring (two cases of 

 forty-three observed). The occtirience of these he attributes to 

 virinism. 



Burkili;: has approached the sulijeet from a dill'erent standpoint, 

 having collected observations on the insects visiting the cotton 

 flower. In the earlier note are recorded observations from Behar 

 and in the later those made in Berar and Central India. He sums 

 up the observations made in the former case by saying " It seems, 

 " then, that insects such as 1 observed visiting the flowers in Behar 

 " do produce an effect ; but it is an extremely small one indeed — 

 " merely a hybrid plant here and a hybrid plant there." 



• Diet, of the Economic Procluc's of In(li:i, e-p. y. .S9-12. 



t The wild anil cultivated coUodkoI the world, l'J07, ^e isp. p. lin, 



J Agricultural Leilyer II, I8'J."«, No. 8. 



§ Mcmoii- jf the Dcpl. of Agr. in Imlia, Hut. Seriea II, I'JUS, No. i,. 



II Jour, An Soc. liengal III, lun:, p, .-,17 and VI, lOl'i, p. im. 



