SECTION III: GREEN FUZZY COTTON 187 



(though he describes the noteworthy plants seen by him, and gives 

 minute details of the recently introduced industry of sugar-planting. 



The two brothers Lignon (quoted by Tournefort, I.e. 1719, p. 101), The 

 communicated information to the great French botanist regarding Brothers 

 the plants of the American islands, more especially of Guadeloupe, 

 and were apparently the original authors of the expression ' the very 

 excellent American cotton with green seeds.' 



Whether Miller was correct or not in identifying his hirsute plant 

 with green seeds, which he grew in the Chelsea Garden, with the 

 plant referred to by Tournefort and the Lignons, may be a matter of 

 some uncertainty the alternative would be G. peruvianum. Miller 

 continued to transcribe, however, the information furnished by the 

 Lignons through the succeeding editions of the Dictionary down to 

 the 6th (1752), when he changed its position in the series by making Miller 

 it No. 4, separated it from the other species with which it had been ^ e r ^ ts 

 confused by Tournefort, and added his own description of it. But scription. 

 Miller's additional and more precise information regarding the plant 

 was not likely to have been seen by Linnaeus in time for incorporation 

 in the first edition of the ' Species Plantarum ' (1753), and in conse- 

 quence G. hirsutum, Linn, was not published botanically until the 

 second edition of the ' Species Plantarum ' (1763), by which time the 

 seventh edition of Miller's Dictionary (1759) had been issued, and the 

 eighth edition came out simultaneously with the new issue of the 

 ' Species Plantarum.' But the opinion may be hazarded that the 

 Guadeloupe plant, so highly commended by the brothers Lignon, may 

 have been carried by the French colonists to America, and from that 

 source may have been derived the seed cultivated at Badminton and 

 which was spoken of as obtained from California. (Plate No. 29 B.) 



We know at all events that much interest was taken in this plant 

 the world over shortly after its discovery. It was recognised as an 

 immensely superior stock to the Levantine plant, previously grown 

 (G. herbaceum, Linn.). 



About the time in question also the highest society in England Ehret's 

 had a new inspiration through the genius of Mr. G. D. Ehret, the 

 water-colour painter of flowers and fruits, who married Philip Miller's 

 sister [cf. FBONTISPIECE, which represents one of Ehret's sketches]. A 

 collection of his original water colourings, which date from 1748, is 

 preserved in the Botanical Department of the British Museum. A 

 small volume of these is entitled ' New and Bare Plants,' among which 

 No. 15 is an unfinished sketch of G. hirsutum, Linn., named ' G. semine 



