204 WILD AND CULTIVATED COTTONS 



Box- colour.' Eoxburgh tells us that it was introduced into Bengal under 



VJ " r ^ the name Nankeen cotton, but adds that ' more recently a small variety 

 of this tawny cotton has been introduced into this garden from the 

 province of Nankeen itself.' The small plant to which Eoxburgh 

 alludes was doubtless G. Nanking, and thus the father of Indian 

 botany had early recognised that the wool being red or khaki coloured 

 was in no way specific, and moreover that the true khaki cotton of 

 China was not G. religiosum, and thus without so much as naming it, 

 swept G. croceum from the literature of the genus. 



In conclusion it may be pointed out that Linnaeus was in error 

 Bombax when he cited Plukenet (' Aim.' 172, t. 188, f. 2), under his Bombax 

 sum!* " religiosum, ' Sp. PL' (ed. 1753, 512). In the subsequent edition, 

 Linnaeus himself omitted that citation, but it was possibly due to this 

 error that Plukenet's illustration came to be spoken of as G. religio- 

 sum, and that the further error was made by Swartz, Willdenow, and 

 Parlatore, of calling the kidney cotton of Brazil G. religiosum (the 

 plant actually described and illustrated by Plukenet's f. 2). The 

 species which Linnaeus himself distinguished by that name is the 

 form discussed above as G. hirsutum, Linn., var. religiosa. 



30. G. PALMERII, sp. nov. 



Leaves mostly linear oblong, pinnately veined, bracteoles very 

 slightly united below and having conspicuous cavernous glands on the 

 apex of the pedicels and within the cordate bases of the bracteoles, 

 also minute bractlets occasionally present, protecting the internal 

 glands (f. 3) ; flowers very small, pale yellow ; seeds large, free, 

 coated with green fuzz and silky cotton. (See Plate No. 34.) 



Descrip- A much branched woody shrub, all parts glabrescent, stems, branches 



tion. and petioles quite glabrous, dark red and wrinkled, internodes often very 



short, especially on the flowering shoots, joints conspicuous and marked by 

 large scars corresponding with the attachments of the stipules. Leaves 1 to 

 3J inches long by \ inch broad, almost quite glabrous except a few shaggy 

 hairs on the margin, mostly entire, linear-oblong, slightly constricted below 

 into the obtuse or imperfectly cordate (simulating an auriculately peltate) 

 base, acuminate and bristle tipped (f. 1), pinnately 1 -nerved or only imper- 

 fectly 3-nerved and with a conspicuous gland J inch or so from the base 

 (f. 2), occasionally 3-lobed, the lobes long, narrow, and cut almost to the 

 bottom, but with the auriculately peltate condition of base prolonged beyond 

 the union of the three veins ; stipules large, broad ovate acuminate, 

 caducous, leaving the scars already mentioned (f. 1). Inflorescence 

 lateral branched shoots, with very short jointed or gnarled divisions ; 

 peduncles not half inch ; bracteoles very slightly united below, ovate deeply 



