126 



WILD AND CULTIVATED COTTONS 



Bed- 



flowered 



Nanking. 



Descrip- 

 tion. 



India. 



recent travellers in that country is closely akin to that described and 

 figured by Cavanilles (I.e.). For example, Lord Curzon (' Persia and the 

 Persian Question,' n., 1892, pp. 496-7) speaks of cotton growing with 

 facility at an elevation of 5,000 feet. This is very possibly the present 

 plant, and it was most likely the species seen by Marco Polo in Persia 

 during the thirteenth century. British Museum specimens : Herb. 

 Schlagintweit Cat. n. 4236, Kashmir, 1856 ; Herb. Hook. f. & T. T., Nil- 

 ghiri and Kurg Hills, a duplicate of which may be seen in M. de Candolle's 

 Herbarium, Geneva. In Edinburgh Herbarium, Schlagintweit 's n. 12,445, 

 collected at Marri (5,000 feet alt.), Nov. 1856. 



17. Var. rubicunda, Watt: G. BUBICUNDUM, Eoxb., MS. name and 

 drawing. (See Plate No. 17, types, also Plate No. 18, Eoxburgh's 

 MS. coloured sketch.) 



So much has been said regarding red-flowered field cottons under 

 G. arboreum, var. sanguinea that very little remains to be said 

 about those that have to be provided for under G. Nanking. The 

 descriptions of travellers, and often of botanists also, are so general 

 that it is rarely possible to separately distinguish the two kinds of 

 red-flowered cottons referred to by them. There are, however, 

 certain specimens that so fully support the present plant that it 

 seems desirable to enforce its recognition as a practical, if it be not 

 a botanical, fact. The plant in question may be briefly described 

 as follows : 



A herbaceous, red- flowered condition, with, as a rule, smaller leaves 

 than in either G. Nanking or G. arboreum. In the young state, these are 

 densely covered with stellate hairs, and the twigs, petioles and peduncles 

 with even spreading hairs. Leaves half cut into 3-5 lobes, and only 

 slightly cordate, the lobes spreading, somewhat triangular to oblong, acute, 

 constricted below into the rounded open sinuses. Bracteoles large, ovate 

 cordate, sub-entire. Calyx truncate, i.e. not toothed. Corolla deep purple, 

 small, but wide and gaping, with pronounced convolvulate hairy folds. 

 Capsule small sub-globose or ovate acute. Seeds with brown velvet and 

 easily separable long, fine, and pure white silky floss. 



Habitat. This occurs occasionally over the hotter parts of India, 

 and would appear to be almost confined to that country, though it 

 has been collected in Ceylon and China. 



Citation of Specimens. In the Kew Herbarium there is a sheet of 

 this plant (ex herb. Forsyth) with a label bearing ^Roxburgh's name 

 attached to it (see Plate No. 17 C), which matches his MS. drawing 

 (see Plate No. 18), except that the drawing seems to show too many of the 

 leaves 5- instead of 3-lobed. Another specimen collected by Griffith 

 at Serampore, near Calcutta, is a good example. G. Thomson's specimen 

 from Palaveram, Madras, collected in July 1845, is a form in which the 



