146 



WILD AND CULTIVATED COTTONS 



Kahnami, 

 a recent 

 form. 



No 



examples 

 of it in 

 Sloane's 

 Herb. 



O. herba- 

 ceum not 

 grown in 

 India. 



Hybrid 

 stock. 



cultivated under a new system. It is even still more curious that 

 his samples seem all much closer to the wagria than to the kahnami 

 race, a fact that might be accepted as favouring the belief that the 

 wagria is a more ancient stock than the kahnami and other higher- 

 grade cottons. Under the race Uppam (below) it will be seen a 

 passage is quoted from Eoyle in which he speaks of that cotton as 

 coming nearer to the American Upland than does any other 

 Peninsular cotton. This would, therefore, almost imply that even so 

 late as 1851 Surat and Broach cottons were not regarded as the finest 

 Indian stocks. 



It is moreover most singular that there is no Indian example of 

 G. obtusifolium, in any form, in the Sloane Herbarium of the British 

 Museum, while cultivated states of G. arboreum and G. Nanking are 

 plentifully represented from that country. It was not, in fact, until 

 Todaro figured and described G. Wightianum that it can be said that 

 the kahnami cottons of India were clearly and definitely recognised. 

 He, moreover, correctly separated his G. Wightianum from G. her- 

 baceum, but apparently in writing up the names of specimens he 

 gave a wider signification to G. Wightianum than is implied by 

 the description, since in his own handwriting there are specimens 

 at Naples (especially in the Herbarium at Portici) named G. Wightia- 

 num that should be placed under G. Nanking, var. himalayana. 

 Dr. Angelo Aliotta ('Riv. Grit. Gen. Goss.' Portici, 1903, pp. 59-65) 

 reduces G. Wightianum, Tod., G. indicum, Lamk., and G. Nanking, 

 Tod. (non Meyen) to be hybrids of G. arboreum with G. herbaceum. 

 In the 'Dictionary of Economic Products' I accepted Todaro's 

 position and advanced the opinion (here endorsed) that except as 

 met with in Gilgit and Afghanistan G. herbaceum proper is not 

 cultivated in India. But I am now convinced that G. Wightianum 

 is but a later synonym for a cultivated state of the plant Roxburgh 

 described as G. obtusifolium, more especially since I have, on several 

 occasions (subsequent to the date of the Dictionary), collected that 

 plant in at least a semi-wild condition and within the very area of its 

 present-day special cultivation. If var. Wightiana be accepted as 

 but a hybrid, its ancestors are likely to have been G. obtusifolium 

 with very possibly G. Nanking or in some forms G. arboreum. 



Bearing in view the distribution of the plant, it might easily 

 be anticipated that the cotton of Ceylon would be more like 

 G. obtusifolium than any other Asiatic species. It is thus quite 

 possible that the seeds sent to Roxburgh were collected from 



