152 



WILD AND CULTIVATED COTTONS 



N. Gujarat 

 cottons. 



Wagria 

 cottons. 



Descrip- 

 tion. 



Hybrids. 



Tellapatti 

 cottons. 



arities of G. obtusifolinm, and taken only the profusion of short woolly 

 cotton from the other stock. It is the inferior cotton of North Gujarat and 

 Kathiawar. The following specimens may be cited : From the Herbarium 

 E.E.P., nn. 1759, 1764, 1801, 1809, 1812 ; also 21,863. 



(g) Wagria; A common cotton in North Gujarat and Kathiawar, also 

 found in Kach. The readiest eye -mark for this cotton is its globose fruit, 

 which never fully opens with the ripening of the crop, so that the floss does 

 not protrude more than partially. It bears several vernacular names which 

 often denote localities, such as Wagadio, Wadhiaro, Kanmiri, &c. It is 

 common around Wadhwan, Mangrol, Verawal, Botad, Wankaner, Gondal, 

 Wawani, Morvi, Kach, &c. The specimens in the E.E.P. Herbarium, 

 Calcutta, that may be specially mentioned are nn. 1747, 1795, 1822, 1832, 

 1845, and 1871. 



A small, erect, sparsely-branched bush, usually 18 to 30 inches in height, 

 is grown on light soils, requires much less moisture than most of the above 

 races, occupies the soil for eight to nine months, and may even be found 

 on the fields for two or three years. It is much less hairy than is customary 

 with G. obtusifoUum, the older leaves being thick, dark green, glossy, almost 

 glabrous, and veins pale-coloured. Leaves ovate to sub-rotund, 3-5-lobed, 

 cordate ; lobes broad ovate, obtuse or acute. Bracteoles less than half the 

 length of the corolla, broad ovate, cordate, dentate, or sub-entire, spreading 

 as the flowers open, and petals rotating to left. Bolls smooth, globose, 

 mostly 3-celled, valves very broad, only partially opening with maturity. 

 Seeds fairly large, coated with yellow to brown fuzz, and with coarse woolly 

 floss, much as in gogliari. (See Plate No. 21, f. B, also No. 22, ff. B 1 and 2.) 



To the south of the wagria, cotton area the plants met with gradually 

 merge into the Tcanvi cottons, above defined. In fact, Professor Middleton 

 thinks that the crossing of wagria with deshi Broach may have originated 

 both the Jehanpuri and the gogliari cottons, plants with round bolls that only 

 imperfectly open. But it is possible that wagria, is itself a hybrid between 

 the deshi of Broach and the bani of the Central Provinces and Berar. This 

 suggestion would accord with the broad, rounded leaves (much as in the 

 wild forms of G. obtusifoUum), their less hairy condition, the prevalence of 

 the plant in dry regions, as also the tendency to become perennial. It is 

 highly probable, however, that further hybridisation originated the Khanpuri, 

 if not also the gogliari and other intermediate forms that exist. In 

 Verawal a cotton named laUo by the cultivators (n. 1774-5) is almost roji, 

 and has even a tooth in the sinus and the pods are oblong, while another 

 sample, collected at Morvi, and named dabalio, is much closer to G. Nanking 

 than to typical wagria, but has the round closed fruits of that plant. 

 Deshi Amod (n. 1723) is exactly intermediate between G. Nanking and 

 G. obtusifoUum, var. Wightiana. In fact every intermediate state exists 

 between both supposed ancestors of the wagria cottons. Dr. Hove's samples 

 of Gujarat cottons preserved in the British Museum are (as already stated) 

 much closer to the wagria type than to the modern Jcahnami cotton. 



(h) Tellapatti : This is the black-seeded cotton of South India that is 

 often called jowari hathi, and which is found in Bellary and Karnool. 

 There would seem little doubt that this is a naturally-produced hybrid 

 between the uppam and Bourbon cottons. The seeds may be devoid of fuzz 

 (black jowari hathi), or have only a small tuft of fuzz near the beak, or be 



