80 



WILD AND CULTIVATED COTTONS 



The 



Asiatic 



cottons. 



Arab 

 civilisa- 

 tion. 



Aryan 

 civilisa- 

 tion. 



Indian 



and 



African. 



This assemblage may be described as an essentially Asiatic and 

 African one. As indicated in the diagnostic characters given above, 

 all the species have the bracteoles united below by their auriculate 

 bases : they do not possess external glands on the extremity of the 

 peduncle, although those within the bracteoles and upon the calyx 

 are often fairly conspicuous ; and the seeds have a pronounced and 

 conspicuous fuzz, with, in addition, a fairly liberal floss. 



The expression ' the Asiatic fuzzy-seeded cottons,' when used in 

 contradistinction to ' the American fuzzy-seeded cottons,' is useful 

 and diagnostic. But these two descriptions must not be accepted as 

 invariably applicable, since the former is by no means confined to 

 Asia, no more than the latter to America. The distinction between 

 the two sections, in the bracteoles being united in the Asiatic and 

 free in the American, when taken in conjunction with the floral 

 and foliar peculiarities of the assemblages concerned, would, however, 

 seem sufficiently important and constant to merit recognition. 



I have shown (p. 16) that the modern distribution of G. herba- 

 ceum was closely associated with the rise of the Muhammadan 

 power and the dispersion of that religion from Arabia through Asia 

 Minor and Egypt to Europe on the one side, and to Persia and the 

 frontier of India on the other. It was in all probability one of 

 the first great annual cottons, and is closely associated with the 

 Arabic name Qutn. G. obtusifolium originated in India as a cultivated 

 stock, though it is possibly indigenous to Africa as well, and very 

 probably also to the Malayan Peninsula and Islands. It has thus 

 been closely connected with the Sanskrit name karpasa and the 

 early Aryan civilisation of the Old World, and several distinct 

 races of it may even have been carried in prehistoric times 

 throughout Southern Asia. But there would seem enough evidence 

 to at least suggest the belief that in India, and presumably in 

 Africa as well, it was at first a perennial plant, and that the best 

 annual stocks of it now met with originated within comparatively 

 recent times. 



The influence in Southern Asia and Africa of G. arboreum has 

 been co-equal with that of G. obtusifolium. It seems to have been 

 indigenous to both areas, and as a cultivated plant is perhaps more 

 closely associated with Africa and Egypt than with India. It is 

 likely, however, that its cultivation was attempted simultaneously 

 in both areas. It stands, moreover, a greater chance of haying been 

 found indigenous in Africa than in India, and perhaps exists there 



