SECTION III: G. MICROCARPUM 213 



This species undoubtedly belongs to a group of cottons that, Origin. 

 so far as at present known, are peculiar to Mexico and Yucatan, 

 some of which are indigenous to these countries. The proba- 

 bility is, accordingly, in favour of Todaro's statement that it is 

 a native of Mexico, or at all events originated very possibly in 

 Central America, but the existence -of an extensive assortment of 

 specimens collected in Africa shows that its cultivation must be 

 fairly ancient, seeing that it had got distributed so widely, long 

 anterior to its recognition botanically. Miers (MS. notes preserved 

 in B. M.) speaks of his G. congestum as being found in the Antilles 

 and Brazil, and Spruce undoubtedly is speaking of this plant in 

 connection with Peru. It is unfortunate that Todaro was not aware 

 that Miers had studied the plant and suggested a good name for it. 



There seems little doubt that Eohr's ' Porto Eico ' cotton is not 



the naked- seeded Porto Eico cotton of Poiret, hence if it cannot be cottons. 

 accepted, in the future, as a good species it is highly probable that it 

 may be found to be a hybrid produced possibly from G. peruvianum 

 hybridised by G. Schottii or some other member of the fuzzy seeded 

 cottons to which the present form also belongs, see p. 335. 



Cook (' Weevil-Eesisting Adaptations &c. ') seems to incline to the 

 belief that the reduced size of the calyx, in Gosstypium, relatively to 

 the corolla, is in some way dependent on the presence of the 

 protection afforded by the bracteoles. But in this species, where the 

 calyx is exceedingly large, the bracteoles are also exceptionally well 

 developed. 



Cultivation. Spruce (I.e.) is the only writer, so far as I can 

 discover, who has furnished practical facts regarding the cultivation 

 of this plane. He remarks that the contents of a three-celled capsule 

 weighed 125 grains viz. 31 seeds or 65 grs. ; cotton 60 grs., or 48 per 

 cent, of gross weight. He continues, ' this produces the largest pods, 

 with the most numerous seeds, and consequently the greatest 

 quantity of cotton in each cell, of all the kinds of cotton cultivated in 

 Peru.' From the figures given it would take not quite 120 pods 

 to yield a pound weight of clean cotton. 



35. G. PERUVIANUM, Cav., Diss. (1785-90), 313, t. 168 ; Green 

 Seed Cotton, Edwards, Hist. Br. Col. in the West Ind., 1793, vol. n., 

 p. 269 ; G. PERUVIANUM, Willd., in Linn. Sp. PI, 4th, ed., 1800, in., 

 pt. i., 806 ; Poiret, in Lam., Encyc. Supp. n., 1811, 369 ; G. VITI- 

 FOLIUM, Eoxb., Fl Ind. m., 186; G. BELIGIOSUM, Parl, in part 



