132 WILD AND CULTIVATED COTTONS 



mathio n. 21,891 and tiffinia n. 22,034 and Hinganghat bani n. 1799. In Br. 

 Mus. Herb. : Wight, Cat. n. 178 (in Camb. n. 176). In Shuttleworth Herb, 

 (said to be Wall. Cat. 1881a) : a fine example by Hildebrandt, n. 1208, from 

 Dare Salem, February 1874. Hildebrandt, n. 692, from Abyssinia, collected 

 September 1872, seems a form of this plant, but mistaken by some writers for 

 Cienfuegosia pentaphylla, Schum. ; Fortune, collected in China (Shanghai) 

 1845 n. 116a seen in B.M. and Cambridge Herbaria. 



In De Candolle's Herbarium, Geneva, there is a specimen collected in 

 1853 by Zollinger in Java (n. 153) that I am disposed to place under the 

 present variety. 



Hingan- Nomenclature. This affords the finest and most silky qualities 



OomraT of the cottons known in trade as the Oomras (Amraoti), the Hin- 

 ganghats, the Nagpurs and Berars. Under each of these there are 

 usually two grades, viz. the bani and the jari. The former grows 

 on the higher and drier soils, especially of the southern districts, and 

 gives a fine silky floss, but low yield. The latter is raised on the 

 lower black soils of the northern districts and gives an inferior staple 

 of a woolly character, but does so very profusely. Jari seems originally 

 to have been simply a lower quality of bani, and produced possibly 

 by crossing it with var. neglecta; nowadays it is pure neglecta. 

 To the circumstance of bani being one of the races of Chinese cotton 

 is due its white silky staple. By writers hitherto bani has been 

 classed as one of the forms of G. herbaceum or of var. Wightiana, an 

 opinion which arose very probably in consequence of its being usually 

 grown as an annual crop. It bears numerous distinctive names and 

 manifests a considerable range in quality of staple. It mingles with 

 the nadam cotton of the south and east, with the roji of the west and 

 with the Himalayan cottons of the north. It is known in Behar as 

 jethi or desi (deshila) ; in Bengal proper it is bhoglla ; in Berar it 

 has numerous synonyms, such as tidki, judi ; in Southern Kathiawar 

 it seems also to be known by the names of mathio, tiffinia, gangri &c., 

 though the first mentioned is also given to a form of G. obtusifolium 

 var. Wightiana (lalio). 



Their The nadam and bani cottons, though closely allied botanically, 



ongm. gtand very nearly at the opposite poles economically. The former 

 are mostly perennials that afford the lowest grade staple of the 

 country where they are grown ; the latter are often remarkably short- 

 lived annuals that produce as a rule the best cottons in the regions 

 where they are cultivated. Such differences may be a consequence 

 of agricultural methods and environment, or they may denote the 

 presence in the bani cottons of a strain of hybridisation not indicated 



