108 



WILD AND CULTIVATED COTTONS 



cotton. 



Descrip- 

 tion. 



of the past century have been in error as to the plant grown for the 

 muslin industry of Dacca a locality famed for its cottons for perhaps 

 the past 2,000 years. 



Garo Hill 13. Var. assamica, Watt : G. (?) CEBNUUM, Tod., Osser. su Tal. Sp. 

 di Cot. 31 ; C. Mill, Walp. Ann. Bot. vn. (1868), 411 ; Darrah, 

 Note on Cotton in Assam, 1885 ; Middleton, Agri. Ledger No. 8, 

 1895, 19-20; Diet. Econ. Prod. Ind. iv., 141-2. 

 Garo Hill cotton ; Kit or Borkapah (large cotton), Soru kapal, 

 Khungi deva, &c. 



This very remarkable cotton might fairly well be described as an 

 extreme form or special race of var. neglecta. It is raised as an annual 

 crop. Leaves soft, thin, very hairy, borne on exceptionally long leaf-stalks, 

 which are sometimes as much as 4 to 8 inches in length, or twice the 

 length of the leaves ; leaves deeply cut into 5 to 9 (mostly 7) lobes, which 

 radiate upwards from a narrow and only very slightly cordate base, central 

 lobe often once or twice toothed near the sinus, but ribs eglandular. Inflor- 

 escence on long axillary naked peduncles, and bearing 2 to 8 flowers on 

 short pedicels ; bracteoles relatively small, ovate acute, 3-dentate or sub- 

 entire, accrescent and much enlarged on the fruit. Flowers fully twice the 

 length of the bracteoles, pale yellow to white. Capsule much the longest 

 of any species of the genus, the protruding mass of seeds often attaining a 

 length of 6 to 8 inches (f. 4), each mass with 15 to 20 seeds, free from each 

 other but firmly bound through the interlacing of their wool. Seeds large, 

 flattened, beak sharp, fuzz abundant and whitish-brown, floss short, white, 

 very coarse and woolly (see Plate No. 13, ff. 1-4). 



India. Habitat. This plant is a special feature of the Garo and Mikir 



Hills and to some extent also on the plains of Assam (Nowgong, 

 Golaghat and Kamrup, &c.) ; not seen in any herbarium except 

 from Assam. 



Citation of Specimens. Masters collected it many years ago and sent 

 samples to the Agri-Horticultural Society of India, and one of his samples 

 is in the Kew Herbarium. Captain A. T. Gage (Superintendent Eoyal Botanic 

 Gardens, Calcutta) has just sent for my inspection a selection of the 

 specimens in the herbarium of that institution. Among these is a long 

 series of this plant collected by Masters, Jenkins, McClelland, and others. 

 The samples collected from the plains of Assam manifest a transition into 

 both var. neglecta and var. rosea, though all preserve the softly hairy 

 condition of the original Garo plant. An excellent specimen of this variety 

 is in the Edinburgh Herbarium, contributed by Dr. Jameson from Saharanpur. 

 It is thus known to have early found its way to the Saharanpur Botanic 

 Gardens. In consequence many of the examples of var. neglecta, as also the 

 G. Nanking var. bani, and other cottons grown in these gardens, would appear 

 to have been hybridised with the Assam plant. Of this nature may be 

 mentioned the belaitee of Amraoti and the jadi of Akola, as recently issued 



