100 WILD AND CULTIVATED COTTONS 



widely distributed form of cotton in India. But now comes the 

 greatest puzzle of all. In the British Museum Herbarium there is 

 a specimen of this very plant, named G. hirsutum (apparently in 

 Roxburgh's handwriting), which bears on the reverse of the sheet 

 on which it is mounted the remark (in other handwriting) : ' India 

 Orientalis Roxburgh (ex America, introduced).' (That specimen 

 I reproduce on Plate No. 10 C, as also its labels.) 



Okra In 1895 I had the pleasure to receive a most valuable series of 



botanical specimens of the cottons cultivated in the United States 

 of America, contributed by several authorities. In one of the sets 

 I found a specimen of this very plant which bore on the label the 

 name Okra. This interested me greatly, hence I asked Mr. Tracy, 

 of the Mississippi Agricultural Experimental Station, from whom it 

 had been received, for further information. He most kindly replied : 

 ' The okra cotton which you mention as being one of the forms of 

 G. neglectum has always puzzled me. My notes regarding it are as 

 follows : This is one of the older varieties mentioned by southern 

 writers as early as 1837, when it was quite common and somewhat 

 popular, but soon disappeared. In 1870 Dr. C. A. Alexander, of 

 Washington, Ga., found a single stalk in his fields, and from its 

 product it was again disseminated quite widely from 1885 to 1890, 

 but its culture is less general now than five years ago. The plant 

 is of medium growth, limb short and upright, leaves with very 

 narrow lobes ; bolls clustered, small, round, and maturing early ; 

 lint 32-34 per cent., staple 24-26 mm.' 



Historic The explanation of this most interesting and valuable historic 



s< note would appear to be that, when the United States began to 

 consider the desirability of cultivating cotton, the East India 

 Company not only conveyed to them Turkish (which we know they 

 did) but also Indian seed. Hence, just as Siam cotton from 

 Louisiana was spoken of by Cavanilles as American, so a sheet of 

 this peculiarly Indian plant has come somehow or other to bear in 

 the British Museum the note ' Ex America (introduced).' In 

 support of this view it may be pointed out that Purchas (' Pilgrims ' 

 iv., p. 1784) furnishes an interesting statement of the provisions 

 sent to the Colony of Virginia by the Right Hon. Henry, Earl of 

 Southampton in 1621. There we read of the ' Plants of Cotton- 

 wooll trees of the West Indies ' and ' of the cotton- wooll seeds from 

 the Moguls countrie.' Rohr (' Observ. sur la Cult, du Cot.' Fr. ed. 

 1807, p. 62-64) also tells us that he obtained, in 1785, seed of a cotton 



