SECTION II : GUJARAT LONG STAPLE 147 



plants that were accepted as wild, even although it has not been since Distribu- 

 recorded as met with in Ceylon. I have seen undoubted specimens 0^ 

 of it from Africa, the Philippine Islands and elsewhere, all described countries. 

 by the collectors as wild, and there is, therefore, no very potent 

 reason against acceptance of Ceylon as being even an original 

 habitat, even although it apparently no longer exists in that country. 



CULTIVATION. 



Forms Grown. The cultivated states of G. obtusifolium are Adapta- 

 exceedingly difficult to classify, since they blend almost imperceptibly 

 from one type to another, in direct adaptation to smaller and less 

 conspicuous climatic and soil variations, than are experienced in the 

 other cotton areas. 



As already explained, my studies of this most troublesome genus 

 have led me to suppose that if any two forms of cultivated cottons 

 can, or should, be separated, G. herbaceum had better be accepted as 

 distinct from G. obtusifolium. There are, moreover, in India three 

 main classes of cotton soils, with three corresponding main groups 

 of cotton plants : (a) Eich black loamy soils, such as those of 

 Kathiawar, Gujarat, Khandesh or the Karnatic, which are collec 

 tively often spoken of as possessing ' Black Cotton Soils.' (&) Mixed Influence 

 red and black stony, soils, such as those of the Deccan, Berar, the 01 ' 

 Central Provinces, &e. (c) Alluvial sandy soils, such as those in the 

 Ganges and Indus basins. Within (a) the forms of G. obtusifolium 

 are mainly grown: (6) the forms of G. Nanking, and (c) of 

 G. arboreum. 



But in each of these great cotton areas there may be local 

 modifications both in climate, soil, exposure, &c., so that a limited 

 cultivation of all three plants may exist or be possible in any one 

 province. Speaking generally, however, G. Nanking, when met with 

 on the black cotton soils, is of a superior quality to that seen any- 

 where else, and G. arboreum is there very nearly unknown. These 

 soils are too valuable to be used for the inferior grades, and con- Degenera- 

 sequently it is within G. obtusifolium itself, as a rule, that the adap- tlons - 

 tations of plant to environment have taken place. 



On the red and black stony soils, G. obtusifolium rapidly 

 degenerates or becomes hybridrised with G. Nanking. In the areas 

 of sandy dry soils G. obtusifolium becomes unknown, and the 

 higher grades there met with are some of the stocks or hybrids of 

 G. Nanking. 



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