SECTION II: G. ARBOREUM 89 



they cannot be regarded as constituting varieties in fact many of 

 them are but climatic sports that lose their properties on being Climatic 

 translated from one region to another. Hence the flowers may either 8port8p 

 be purple with darker blotches, or yellow with purple blotches in the 

 throat, or even pale yellow with only a pinkish tinge on the outside. 



The purple colour is the type condition of the species, the other Purple 

 shades being the results, doubtless, of special cultivation or hybridisa- 

 tion. It would not be difficult in fact to mention several undoubted 

 hybrids produced artificially, but one may suffice for the present 

 purpose. Mr. Alexander Burns, then of Broach, reported to the The 

 Chamber of Commerce of Bombay in 1844 that he had taken the hybrid, 

 pollen of what he calls G. herbaceum and artificially fertilised with 

 that the stigma of a G. arboreum flower. The result was that he 

 produced a vastly improved hybrid staple. He accompanied his 

 report with three coloured illustrations (which are before me now). 

 One is G. arboreum, Linn., undoubted; the other looks more like 

 G. Nanking (Roji) than G. obtusifolium, var. WigTitiana (Surat 

 cotton as he calls it), the plant used as the male ancestor. The 



third picture is a perfectly intermediate condition a mosaic hybrid Mosaic 



hybrid, 

 in the first generation in which the leaves have the lobes much 



broader and longer than in G. arboreum, but more deeply palmatifid 

 than is customary with G. obtusifolium; while the flower has a 

 purple centre with a ring of yellow around and a purple border to 

 the tips of the petals. The colour of the stem is described as green, 

 not purple, as in G. arboreum, and the whole plant is at the same 

 time very hairy. See p. 335. 



The crossed seed was sown alongside of both its ancestors. 

 G. arboreum flowered from November to April the usual flowering Seasons, 

 of that species ; the hybrid blossomed and yielded its crop within the 

 space of two months, as is customary with the Surat cottons. The 

 new stock, moreover, yielded a larger quantity than is the case with 

 G. arboreum. The produce of 50 bolls was examined and compared 

 with a similar number of characteristic bolls of G. arboreum. The 

 result was 28 per cent, wool and 71 per cent, seed in the hybrid, and Yield - 

 22J per cent, wool and 77 per cent, seed in the ordinary arboreous 

 plant, the balance in both cases being dust. The quality of the wool 

 was also greatly improved. In addition to these accurate details of 

 a hybrid actually produced, there is a further point of interest. Mr. 

 Burns speaks of G. arboretim as if it had been a regular field crop in 

 Gujarat even so late as 1844. 



