SECTION II: RED-FLOWERED NANKIN 127 



leaves are densely coated permanently with stellate hairs. Bottler's 

 specimen from Mysore is doubtless also the same plant, but with possibly a 

 strain of G. arboreum. The lobes of the leaves are narrower, and the 

 sinus more acute. Griffith's Kabul specim'en (see Plate No. 17 B), raised Afghan 

 in Calcutta in 1836, from seed supplied by Captain Wade, is named cotton. 

 G. obtusifolium, Boxb., and Maxwell T. Masters accepted that name for it in 

 his article in the ' Fl. Br. Ind.,' but it seems to me a good example of var. 

 rubicv/nda (cf. remarks under G. Nanking, p. 117 ; the Kashmir and Afghan 

 plants mentioned under var. Mmalayana, p. 125 ; also G. obtusifolium, 

 p. 141). In the Saharanpur Herbarium there is an example procured by 

 Duthie's collector (n. 21, 603,) from Gorakhpur, that bears the date April 1898. 

 In the British Museum Herbarium the following specimens may be 

 mentioned as being this variety : China : Henry Bradley (1779) (leaves often 

 5-lobed) ; Cape of Good Hope : collected by Oldenburg (growing in gardens 

 in 1772). In the Edinburgh Herbarium, two specimens : one collected by 

 Brodie in Ceylon, n. 80 ; the other marked ' Ind. Or.,' which matches exactly 

 the Eoxburghian plant reproduced on Plate No. 17 C. In De Candolle's 

 Herbarium, Geneva, there is a specimen of Wight's (n. 178) that seems to 

 me to be this variety ; also another collected by M. Gaudichaud in 1830. 



Nomenclature. As already repeatedly urged, a red- flowered field- 

 cotton would appear to have been one of the prized crops of India 

 a century or so ago. Hove, on the Western side, and Hamilton, 

 on the Eastern, both spoke highly of these cottons (cf. G. arboreum 

 var. sanguinea, pp. 93-5). To what extent the present form may 

 have fallen under that category is a little difficult to discover. In the Linnean 

 Linnean Herbarium, London, however, there is a specimen of what I spec 

 think there can be no doubt is the present variety. It is named in 

 Linnasus's own handwriting, '2 prcestantissimum,' but of that 

 specimen, or of that name, Linnaeus made no mention in any of his 

 works. What led him to so designate it, or whence he obtained 

 his specimen, is never likely to be now discovered. The name 

 ' the very excellent ' is, however, significant of the contention here 

 put forth namely, that there were cottons with red flowers that 

 were highly spoken of some years ago. I have photographically 

 reproduced (Plate No. 17 A) the Linnaean specimen, as also what 

 may be accepted as the Eoxburghian type (C), and in addition a 

 specimen from Griffith's herbarium (B), grown in Calcutta; these 

 three specimens may, I venture to think, be accepted as the types of R O X- 

 the plant in question. But let it be here clearly observed Eoxburgh burgh's 

 had no hesitation in figuring and describing his G. rubicundum as . 

 perfectly distinct from his G. obtusifolium, though most subsequent 

 botanists confused the two and very frequently called both by the 

 latter name. 



