SECTION III: ANALYTICAL KEY TO SPECIES 163 



was recognised as a distinct species by Linnaeus under the name 

 G. hirsutum, but many subsequent writers have erroneously confused 

 the Old World species G. herbaceum which is not cultivated in the 

 United States, though often so reported.' It certainly was very 

 largely cultivated prior to 1732 and for many years after was the 

 Upland cotton of the States, and I believe still survives, though 

 mostly in a state of hybridisation with G. hirsutum. 



It has been stated that in the United States of America this 

 plant, under most favourable cultivation, produced seed-cotton, the 

 cleaned lint of which was only 25 per cent, of its weight and had a 

 staple only 20 to 30 mm. in length. 



SECTION III. Fuzzy-seeded Cottons with Free Braeteoles. 



BKACTEOLES quite free below (very rarely slightly united and 

 mostly as a consequence of hybridisation) ; PEDUNCLES thickened 

 upwards and often bearing fairly conspicuous external and internal 

 glands', SEEDS large with a distinct and mostly complete fuzz, also a 

 firmly adherent floss ', LEAVES generally large 3-7 palmatifid, pilose, 

 rarely tomentose or still more rarely glabrous, 



American (and in one case African) species, but none of them 

 Asiatic. A fair percentage exists as undoubted wild forms, and the 

 chief cultivated species the green-seeded cotton manifests a close 

 association with British colonists. Collectively they constitute a 

 parallel assortment with the Asiatic cottons, placed under Section II. 

 The species of both sections have fuzzy seeds, but in the present 

 assemblage the leaves are large, broad, and mostly segmented on the 

 upper half of the blade only, while the bracteoles are free or nearly 

 so, hence the diagnostic description of fuzzy-seeded cottons with free 

 bracteoles. 



ANALYTICAL KEY TO THE SPECIES. 



* Leaves broad, pilose-tomentose, one half segmented on the apex into 

 3 (imperfectly and only occasionally 5) ascending lobes, lobes 

 broad triangular, petals mostly with purple claws. 



t Leaves thick, granularly tomentose ; bracteoles with 

 long linear ciliate teeth ; capsule 3-celled 



26. GK nmstelinum . . . . (p. 167). 

 t2 Leaves villous, especially below often conspicuously 

 punctate; bracteoles with the teeth fimbriately 



M2 



