WILD AND CULTIVATED COTTONS 



Fuzzy 

 versus 

 naked 

 seeds. 



Descrip- 

 tion. 



Mexico. 



Ancestral 

 types. 



some extent be the so-called G. arboreum of writers on American 

 cottons, and it is quite possible that it may have contributed by 

 hybridisation toward the production of some of the cultivated plants 

 of the New World, especially those like G. microcarpum, G, peru- 

 vianum, or even G. hirsutum, that have fuzzy seeds. Its existence, 

 were there no other evidence, gives a complete refutation to the 

 statement, often made, that the fuzzy-seeded species are of Asiatic 

 and the naked-seeded of American origin. 



31. G. FRUTICULOSUM, Tod., Bel Cult, del Cot. (1877-78), 187, 

 t. xii., /. 3. 



A much branched bushy species, branches slender, corrugated, quite 

 glabrous. Leaves small, reticulately rugose, leathery, simple, lanceolate, sub- 

 pinninerved, base rather obtuse and obscurely sub-cordate acute; petiole 

 slender half shorter than the blade ; stipules broad, semi-ovate. Bracteoles 

 joined very slightly together, broad ovate, deeply toothed (to the middle), much 

 longer than the pedicels. Corolla small, scarcely equal to the bracteoles. 

 Capsule and seed not seen. 



Todaro's description (of which the above are the more diagnostic features) 

 is hardly sufficient to allow of a definite opinion being formed, but his 

 drawing of necessity involves the retention of the species. It is some years 

 since I had the pleasure of examining the collections preserved in the 

 Herbarium of Florence (Webb's) but of the sample of this plant named by 

 Todaro himself I recorded in my notes that it might be fairly well accepted 

 as the wild condition of G. microcarpum. 



Habitat. Mexico. 



32. G. SCHOTTII, P- nov. ; o. ? PUBESCENS, Schumann, Mart., 

 Fl. Brazil (1891), xn., pt. in., p. 586. 



Leaves sparsely pilose and almost completely split up into three 

 to five long linear lobes, the central one much the longest, the lower- 

 most pair much the shortest and spreading horizontally ; flowers 

 fairly large, longer than the tailed teeth of the free bracteoles, yellow 

 tinged with purple ; fruit globose, hardly exceeding the bracteoles ; 

 seeds large, irregular, with coarse rust-coloured fuzz and scanty coat- 

 ing of inferior reddish wool. (Plate No. 35 reproduces a cultivated 

 state that closely approximates to the conditions of the wild plant.) 



Leaves occasionally entire, mostly segmented ; lobes tapering into a long 

 acuminate apex and constricted into a narrow acute sinus, middle one 

 sometimes with one or more lateral teeth, next pair of medium size and 

 the lowest pair very much shorter and spreading horizontally, base 

 minutely cordate with auricles covering the sinus. Inflorescence lateral 

 shoots, bearing two to four flowers, lowermost internode forming a 

 peduncle 2 to 3 inches long, pedicles hardly an inch ; bracteoles ovate rotund, 



