128 WILD AND CULTIVATED COTTONS 



Further It is significant, also, that all the best examples of this plant seen 



evolution. ^ mQ ^ a pp ear ^ h av e been procured in India, and the majority from 

 South India. It might be described as, and probably is, a hybrid from 

 Or. arboreum with G. Nanking. But it seems to have been supplanted 

 and its place taken in Madras and the S. Deccan to a very large 

 extent, and possibly at a comparatively recent date, by the yellow- 

 flowered nadam and bani cottons which may be viewed as still 

 further hybrids, bringing the stock very much nearer to the typical 

 condition of G. Nanking. If this assumption be supported by future 

 investigation, it would account for the yellow flowers and spreading 

 hairs of these South Indian cottons which otherwise might, from 

 the texture and shape of their leaves, the shape of the bracteoles, 

 the character of the seed and wool, &c., be treated as forms of 

 G. arboreum, Linn., and indeed they have frequently been so treated. 

 [Cf. Perennial Cottons in ' Planter,' Aug. 29, 1896 ; Bomb. Chamb. 

 Comm. Eept. 1900, p. 126; Ann. Bept. Director Agri. Bomb. 

 1900-1901, 24.] 



18. Var. Nadam, Watt: Capas, Bumphius, Herb. Amb., iv. 

 pp. 33-37, t. 12 ; Middleton, The Agric. Ledg. n. 89 of 1895, 

 p. 8 ; G. INDICUM, Gammie, Indian Cottons (1905), v. 6, pi. ix. 

 (in part) ; Diet. Econ. Prod. Ind. iv., 101-2. 



Coconada. In trade the cotton of this assemblage is often designated 

 ' Coconada,' and besides nadam there are several other vernacular 

 names that denote the series, such as yerra (red), also paira, 

 burada, &c., and in Burma wa-gale. They are perennial bushy plants 

 with dark-green foliage and deep red-coloured stems that recall in 

 many respects var. rubicunda. 



Descrip- Leaves thick, leathery with age, becoming almost glabrous, 



and very conspicuously gland-dotted, 3- to 5-lobed, the lobes 

 usually very broad, almost triangularly ovate, tapering, the three 

 prominent ribs with glands below. Flowers bright yellow, with 

 purple spots on the claws, pinkish-coloured in bud, as also on 

 passing maturity. Bracteoles relatively thick, sparsely toothed. 

 Habitat. The Deccan and South India, Burma, and possibly 



South distributed to Arabia and Africa never recorded except under 



cottons. cultivation. This special form might be spoken of as fringing the 

 natural habitat of G. Nanking and blending into the Indian cottons 

 hence its occurrence in Bhutan, Manipur, Assam, Burma, South India 

 and the Deccan. It is, in other words, the tropical borderland 



