SECTION I: G. DRYNARIOIDES 71 



This mistake has been repeated by many subsequent writers, and Fiji 

 although Hillebrand upholds G. tomentosum as a good species and cottons - 

 amplifies and corrects the original description, he has not himself 

 clearly and definitely separated it from G. taitense, ParL, which 

 he calls G. religiosum, Linn. This is the more surprising since he 

 observes that G. tomentosum is unfit for cultivation on account of 

 its short staple, while even the wild G. taitense affords a fairly good 

 floss which in the cultivated state (G. purpurascens] affords the 

 Bourbon cotton. 



It is somewhat significant that Parlatore, while relegating 

 G. tomentosum to the position of a doubtful species, should have 

 figured and described the Sandwich Island plant as a new form, Sandwich 

 under the name G. sandwicense, and thus failed to recognise that san s * 

 his supposed new species was unquestionably Nuttall's plant. It is 

 curious also that, while Seemann says cotton is not indigenous to any 

 part of the Fiji Islands, he should have allowed the association of 

 G. tomentosum with these islands. This circumstance is doubtless 

 explained by the confusion of G. tomentosum, Nutt., with G. taitense, 

 ParL 



Var. parvifolia: In the British Museum there is a specimen with 

 very small leaves, entire or three-lobed, which bears the remark that it is, 

 G. parvifolium, Nutt. M8. It certainly is nothing more than a variety, 

 but it is worthy of separate mention. It would appear to have been 

 collected at Owhyhee. A specimen in the Kew Herbarium from the 

 Molokai Island has the leaves very much narrower than is customary and 

 is thus probably also this variety of the species. 



7. G. DRYNARIOIDES, Seem.. Fl. Vit. 1865, p. 22 ; Hillebrand, 

 Fl. Haivaimn Islands, 1888, 51 ; Todaro, Belaz. Cult, del Cot. 

 1877, 248. 



Kokio cotton of Hawaii. 



Leaves cordate, 5-7-lobed, very large ; flowers solitary on jointed Desorip- 

 peduncles, with an entire bract-like leaf ; bracteoles adnate to the 

 calyx-tube, entire or toothed and free from each other, becoming very 

 large, membranous, and strongly reticulate; calyx urceolate, com- 

 pletely enclosing the young flower ; seeds solitary in the cells, very 

 large, and with a single coarse brownish tomentum. 



A small tree, 12-15 feet high with a thick gnarled trunk ; leaves mem- 

 branous, glabrous, pitted, but destitute of black dots, cordate, 7-5-lobed, 

 about 5 inches in diameter, lobes comparatively very short, deltoid (eglan- 

 dular?), petioles 3-4 inches long. Inflorescence solitary, axillary flowers 

 within the uppermost leaves, the peduncles being jointed and bearing a broad 



