SECTION II: G. ARBOREUM 85 



been examined by me, and appears superior to the average quality 

 obtained nowadays from G. arboreum. Buchanan-Hamilton, who 

 gave special attention to the subject of the Indian cottons, did 

 not, seemingly, preserve a specimen of the typical arboreous form 

 of this species in his herbarium. Sets of his plants are to be seen 

 in the Kew, the British Museum, the Wallichian and in the 

 Edinburgh Herbaria, more especially the last, and among these 

 may be discovered admirable samples of a red-flowered herbaceous 

 plant, which, botanically, is derived almost immediately from 

 G. arboreum, with possibly a strain of G. Nanking. Of that plant 



Buchanan-Hamilton has recorded the following observation: P a ?"Jl~. , 



ton's Field 

 ' n. 1549, G. nigrum, vide comment, meum in Hort. Mai. p. crop. 



primam. var. (a) rubicundum : G. indicum, Willd. Sp. PI. in., 

 803 (?) Colitur ubique in India vulgatissima.' Now if the plant 

 shown by that specimen (see Plate No. 9) was cultivated everywhere 

 in India, and very common in 1809, it must be spoken of as 

 absolutely unknown to-day and its place taken by a multitude of 

 forms, of yellow-flowered plants, considerably more remote from 

 G. arboreum, Linn., type than that just mentioned. 



So far as presently known the arboreous form (which may be 

 called the typical condition) can hardly be said to be cultivated 

 as a source of fibre to-day, though, according to Indian tradition, 



it is the cotton that should be selected in preparing the Brahmanical Bral V 



mamcal 

 string, as also for the wicks of lamps to be burned in temples, and string. 



it has been often affirmed that this was the cotton specially used by 

 the Egyptian priests (Gerarde, ' Hort.' 1597, p. 753) in the construc- 

 tion of their robes. It would seem, however, that some hesitation 

 should be manifested in accepting the frequently-asserted antiquity 

 of the Egyptian knowledge in cotton. Pliny speaks of Ethiopia, 

 bordering on Egypt, as possessing wool-bearing trees. That Ethiopia 

 and Arabia have had perennial tree cottons from the most ancient 

 times (possibly forms of G. arboreum) there would seem to be no 

 doubt, and Forskal's specimen of G. mbrum, preserved in the 

 British Museum, is certainly G. arboreum. 



Serapion, who lived about 850 A. D., quotes still earlier authors. Authors. 

 One of these, Abu Hanifa, says that at Kelbe cotton grows on 

 trees, which are like those of the quince, and last for twenty years, 

 though they are in their best condition during the ninth year. 

 Ebn Baithar also furnishes an interesting account of the cotton- 

 plant, and praises garments woven of its fleece. (Cf. with the 



