174 



WILD AND CULTIVATED COTTONS 



Fuzzy 



West 

 Africa. 



Palmers- 

 ton's 

 prophecy. 



pilose forms to gradually merge into G. hirsutum, Linn., and in the 

 glabrous into G. mexicanum, Tod. (Mexican Cotton), if not ultimately 

 into G. purpurascens, Poir. (Bourbon Cottons.) Schumacher and 

 Thonning would seem to speak of the seed in their plant as being 

 naked, at all events they observe that it varies into a naked-seeded 

 form. Thus I have supposed these authors to imply that in its 

 normal state it is fuzzy. The glabrous variation to which they 

 allude may, however, have been G. purpurascens, and therefore a 

 distinct species. Guillemin and Perrottet have no doubt on this 

 point, as they speak of the fuzz as brown and of the wool snowy 

 white and firmly adhering to the seed. 



The interest in the present species turns on its close connection 

 with at least one of the prized cottons of modern commerce. The 

 truly wild plant is thus available for scientific test experiments on 

 cotton improvement. 



Far. prostrata, Watt; G. prostration, ScJium. et TJwn. I.e. 311. A 

 prostrate shrub, with the leaves simple or 8-, more rarely 5-lobed ; calyx 

 often with acuminate teeth, and seeds with both a fuzz and floss. I men- 

 tion this form on the authority of the original authors. I have seen no 

 sample of it, unless one in De Candolle's herbarium, which I prefer to treat 

 as a cultivated plant, but its parallelism with G. religiosum as a variety of 

 G. Tiirsutum (below) seems worthy of record. (Cf. Oliver, ' Fl. Trop. Afr. ' 

 I. 1868, p. 212.) 



CULTIVATION. 



In many parts of West Africa, as already indicated, this plant 

 exists in a state of cultivation that can hardly be described as 

 manifesting a development into G. hirsutum. It is there simply 

 cultivated G. punctatum. Many writers who deal with the cotton 

 production of West Africa seldom give particulars as to the species 

 met with by them. But the prevalence of the present species 

 justifies the more interesting reports that have appeared on West 

 African cotton being placed under contribution in this position. 



Mention has already been made of Lord Palmerston's prophecy 

 that the West Coast of Africa would outstrip all other countries in 

 the production of cotton, excepting only the United States. The 

 realisation of that prophecy is still hi the future, and is likely to 

 remain so until the great cotton-growing tracts have been opened out 

 and facilities of quick and cheap transit provided. Many failures 

 will doubtless frustrate temporarily the endeavours of the pioneers, 

 but if local resources and indigenous stocks are taken in hand and 



