112 



WILD AND CULTIVATED COTTONS 



Caution 

 necessary. 



Bani = 6. 

 nankmg. 



Varadi 

 cotton. 



Descrip- 

 tion. 



the exhibition of the remotely different American stock G. hirsutum. 

 Gammie's experiment need not, therefore, prove that the bani cottons 

 of India are hybrids between G. roseum and G. hirsutum. (Of. with 

 pollen-grains p. 346.) 



But we have here a useful demonstration, doubtless, of the extreme 

 caution that is on every hand necessary in propounding explanations 

 of existing forms of cotton, until the accumulated definite knowledge 

 has laid a rational foundation in the species and varieties of the 

 genus. So much obscurity prevails that countless experiments, such 

 as those performed by Professor Gammie, may have to be conducted 

 in every cotton-growing country, until the more obvious mis- 

 conceptions have been eliminated and we are in a position to affirm 

 that a cross betwsen two plants (pure types) will produce such and 

 such a resultant. 



The above experiment therefore with G. roseum x G. hirsutum 

 seems to me to confirm the belief I have advanced elsewhere that 

 the bani cottons of India belong to a perfectly distinct series, the 

 ancestral type of which is G. Nankmg (Of. p. 134.) 



14. Var. rosea, Watt: G. ROSEVM, Tod. (aslo G. ALBIFLOBUM 

 Tod.), Bel. Cult, dei Cot., 164-68 t. 2, also Osser. su Tal. Sp. di 

 Cot. 22; C. Mull, Walp. Ann. Bot. vn. (1868), 410; Nurdki 

 Cotton of Middleton, I. c. 11 ; Aliotta, Biv. Grit. Gen. Goss., 18 

 (treats this as a hybrid of G. barbadense x G. arboreum) ; G. 

 CEBNUUM, Gammie, (non Tod.), Ind. Cot. 1905, 7, t. vin., but 

 exclude synonym of Garo Hill Cotton. 



Varadi cotton, Katel Belati cotton, Nimari cotton, Bangai cotton 

 (Sylhet), and Nurdki of Bengal. 



As already suggested, this is in reality but an extreme form 

 (a hybrid, most probably) of G. arboreum, Linn., var. neglecta. The 

 leaves are deeply 5-7-lobed ; the lobes very narrow, but very long, 

 and almost rotate on the petiole, the bottom imperfect pair of lobes 

 being thrown pedately backwards from the shallow cordate base. 

 Flowers very short, erect, white with purple claws, or white or 

 yellow with a pink tinge, and completely contained within the large 

 bracteoles (see Plate No. 14 A, which reproduces Todaro's original 

 picture, and B, which shows a typical specimen of the plant). 



Citation of Specimens. The following specimens of this plant may 

 be here mentioned : Wight, n. 212, from Coimbatore ; the Tconkho 

 chicao, E.E.P., n. 22,012 ; Nagpur-kil, E.E.P., n. 22,029, and 22,031, and 

 the judi and katel cottons, cultivated at Saharanpur in 1891 ; Senaar 



