224 



WILD AND CULTIVATED COTTONS 



Descrip- It may now be useful to furnish here the descriptive notes recorded 



tion. while examining the specimens supplied by Mr. W. Lawrence Balls : 



1. Afifi or Hit Afifi. This seems a hybrid. Inflorescence solitary 

 axillary on leafy shoots, the flowers and fruits thrown to one side, as customary 

 with typical examples of O. peruvianum ; stipules large, sickle-shaped ; 

 flowers lemon yellow, turning purple, not much exceeding the bracteoles ; 

 calyx glabrous, loose, cup-shaped, obscurely toothed, but prominently gland- 

 dotted, no bractlets seen and extra floral glands not very strongly marked 

 until the fruits form ; capsule linear acuminate, with prominent imbedded 

 glands within the outer surface, 3-celled, ultimately opening out almost flat, 

 but beak not strongly hooked ; seeds fairly large, elongated, striped, nearly 

 naked, except a tuft of rufous fuzz on both extremities, floss somewhat woolly, 

 of a brownish-white colour, matted below, and about 1^ inch long. 



2. Abassi. This seems to differ from the afifi mainly in the following 

 points : Leaves more often 5-lobed, and in the young shoots tomentose 

 below ; bracteoles more deeply gashed, the teeth becoming almost awl-shaped. 

 The pods are 3-celled, not opening out so much, and beaks of valves sharply 

 hooked ; the seeds short-broad, quite free and brown-striped smooth naked, 

 except for a tuft of brownish fuzz on the apex and a patch on one side near 

 the base (more abundant than in afifi), wool copious, long, fairly silky, and 

 of good white colour. 



3. Egyptian Cotton n. 158, C 2. This seems again a superior cotton, 

 and possibly close to the above. It appears to differ from the abassi mainly 

 in the leaves being more frequently entire or only 3-, rarely 5-lobed, and the 

 lobes broader and tomentose ; seeds with the beak not hooked, ovate, fuzz 

 at both extremities very small, and at the base forming forked bands ; wool 

 white, long, and silky. 



4. Egyptian Cotton n. 56, C 2. This again I take to be only another 

 hybrid close to the abassi or mit afifi. Leaf stalks and shoots seem to 

 be usually succulent, and leaves glabrescent 3- to 5-lobed, very much as in 

 G. brasiliense ; flowers small yellow, no bractlets seen ; capsule 3-celled ; 

 seed ovate, beak distinctly hooked and split on the apex, quite naked except 

 for a rufous tuft at the base near the hylum, prominently striped black on 

 the smooth brown surface in a fashion strongly suggestive of the seeds of 

 G. brasiliense, although quite free. 



5. Egyptian Cotton n. 142 A. I see nothing structurally to separate 

 this from the other forms above detailed. The leaves are entire or 3-lobed, 

 not 5-lobed, as is ordinarily the case with abassi ; flowers very small and 

 with purple spots, but they show no trace of protecting bractlets over the 



Artificially glands ; seeds short, swollen, brown with black lines, and with an abortive fuzz 



produced at the apex and base ; wool somewhat harsh. This, Mr. Balls states, was 



hybrid. used as one of the parents in a hybrid (n. 250), the other stock being a form of 



G. Tiirsutum (n. 43 A 2), which botanically might be said to be nearer Molango 



than Moqui (n. 209-3). The hybrid (F 1), I observe, has the large coarse, 



fuzzy seed of its G. Mrsutum parent, but possesses a fine long silky floss (a 



recessive character possibly from an ancient ancestor, probably G. brasiliense 



Jumel stock). It is curious and perhaps valuable that it has shown the 



property of early maturity, but will this come true in subsequent generations ? 



WEST INDIES. In a useful pamphlet called ' The A. B. C. of 

 ' Cotton Planting,' issued by the Imperial Department of Agriculture 



