SECTION III: AFRICAN WILD COTTON 171 



plant, though it is too nearly glabrous, and the fuzz on the seed imperfect. Speci- 

 The label bears the remark, ' supposed by some to be native.' Another mens. 

 sample of the same plant is Palmer's n. 10 (named G. barbadense), ' a cul- 

 tivated plant four years old, the seed from the Laguna desert cotton country 

 in Coahuila.' Thus Alabama and Florida, in say the 30 N. lat., may be 

 viewed as the one, and Costa Rica, in the 10 S. lat., the other limit of the 

 American distribution of this plant. 



Crossing the Atlantic to the continent of Africa the species is again met 

 with, both cultivated and wild. In the Edinburgh Herbarium there is 

 a specimen by J. Brown-Lester, n. 59n, collected during the Gambia 

 Boundary Commission, that is a cultivated state of this plant. Specimens 

 came from Badagry in 1825 (see Herb. G. Don. in B. M.) ; a further 

 specimen from Lagos (district of Badagry), and reported on by W. Higginson 

 as ' the wild cotton ' (see Plate, No. 27 A) ; from Sierra Leone (where Barter 

 found it during the Niger Expedition), said to be ' common near the cliffs ' ; 

 from Senegal, collected by Brunner, n. 140 (ex Herb. Shuttleworth in B. M.), 

 also by the same, n. 32, cult, in the Island St. Ludovie (a form with small, 

 thick leaves) ; from the Gold Coast, Mr. W. H. Johnson recently sent to 

 Kew three sheets numbered I., II., and III., all these have been named 

 G. punctatum, but only II. should bear that name : III. is G. hirsutum, 

 the cultivated state of G. punctatum, and I. is G. peruvianum. They were 

 all grown at the Anum Cotton Farm. 



More recently, Mr. Dudgeon has sent from the Gold Coast a specimen of 

 this plant, which he speaks of as ' native small-boiled, pale-flowered cotton 

 from Labolabo.' A form very near to this species, if not identical with it, comes 

 from far to the South, namely Angola (Welw., n. 5,222, named G. maritimum, 

 Tod.). But in addition, n. 5,224 seems typical G. punctatum (at least the Kew 

 specimen is so), and of this it is said that it is both cultivated and spon- 

 taneous ' but not indigenous near Sange.' In this connection also it may 

 be mentioned that several specimens of this plant have come from Madeira 

 such as Mr. E. F. Lowe's samples. E. Webb collected it, in 1896, at Nyasa- 

 land, where it was called kota-Jtota (see B. M.) Lastly, Dr. E. Vogel's 

 n. 35, from Central Africa (kouku, collected February 2, 1854) is probably 

 this self-same species, as also, it may be added, is Captain W. H. Wellby's 

 plant, brought from far to the east, near Lake Eudolf (September 1899). 



It will thus be seen that the African distribution (so far as at present 

 known) lies chiefly between Senegal, 15 N. lat., and Angola, 15 S. lat. 

 Lastly, in the Kew Herbarium there is a sample of what I take to be this 

 plant, communicated by Dr. Jameson (n. 189) from the Saharanpur Botanic 

 Gardens of North India. Where the seeds were originally obtained from, 

 has not been stated, but it seems to have been there experimentally grown 

 some time before 1861. It possibly is the 'Hindi Weed,' brought from 

 Egypt along with 'the Egyptian cottons that were largely experimented with 

 in India, or may have come from Mauritius as a half-way house (see below). 



In the Edinburgh Herbarium there is an interesting series of specimens 

 of this species, but, curiously enough, these are referable to two sets : the first 

 mostly derived from Jamaica, and var. Jamaica, ; the second entirely from 

 India, and exclusively var. nigeria. In addition to duplicates of Eugel's 

 nn. 92 and 93, there is a beautiful specimen collected in Jamaica by 

 Dr. McNab. This is apparently a cultivated state, not a wild form. Then 



