SECTION III: GEORGIAN COTTON 191 



punctatum element must be regarded as having been very strong 

 indeed. If this was the stock Major Trevor Clarke operated on, 

 there would very probably be little to be surprised at in his failure 

 to still further hybridise it with the Indian cottons. The label 

 attached to Major Trevor Clarke's plant has the following note : 

 ' Branch of Cotton plant (Gossypium) apparently the wild form of a 

 marked race, known as the " West Indian Green Seeded." Distinct 

 from but somewhat resembling G. tomentosum. Santa Paulo, Brazil, 

 1873.' The ' green seeded plant ' to which he alludes, so far as I imperfect 

 am aware, has nowhere been found wild, but it would very possibly ?^ ow " 

 have been one of the races of G. hirsutum, a plant nearly as different failure, 

 from Major Clarke's specimen as both are from G. tomentosum. No 

 wonder then that failure resulted, if experiments at cross-breeding 

 were actually conducted before having had even a fairly accurate 

 conception of the botany of the genus operated with. 



The type of the species G. hirsutum, Linn., Sp. PL, as already Distribu- 

 affirmed, is the plant that was grown in the Chelsea Physic Gardens tlon> 

 in 1732, and of which seeds were sent to the United States, but to 

 which perhaps sufficient reference has already been made. It was 

 ultimately distributed all over the States, and in time found its way 

 to Egypt and even to India. Eoxburgh recognised it as distinct from 

 his G. obtusifolium, and referred to it as of late introduced into India. 

 Macfadyen speaks of the Wild Cotton of Jamaica, which he had 

 named as G. jamaicense, as closely resembling G. hirsutum, except 

 that the latter is hirsute and the capsules, according to Swartz, 

 3-celled ; and the seeds, according to Wildenow, adherent. 



There would seem to be no doubt that the plant grown by Miller Effects of 

 was much closer botanically to G. punctatum, as defined above, than skl ^ ed 

 it rapidly became under skilled cultivation. It is, in fact, probable tion. 

 that few cultivated cottons have changed or can be changed more 

 rapidly and completely than the plant here dealt with. The samples 

 seen in herbaria manifest, at all events, an undoubted progression 

 when assorted in sequence of date. Moreover, when procured from 

 countries where little attention has been paid to improvement, or 

 when cultivated under unfavourable conditions (as in India), G. hir- Degenera- 

 sutum often becomes hardly distinguishable from G, punctatum. For tlon ' 

 example, Mr. Leo Farmar has recently collected this cotton from a 

 field near the Botanic Station of Hann, in Senegal, which perhaps 

 had best be described as a cultivated state of G. punctatum rather 

 than a form of G. hirsutum. 



