226 WILD AND CULTIVATED COTTONS 



Province of Sind for cotton-growing could not be surpassed even by 

 the United States. (Of. Major M. T. Lyde, ' Agri. Ledger ' No. 9 of 

 1898.) 



A study therefore of the results obtained in all parts of the world 

 with this special South American and Egyptian cotton, leads to the 

 conclusion that it is best suited to dry, hot, upland climates, where 

 it can be supplied with abundant surface irrigation, with hot sunshine 

 during day, and heavy dews by night. It is pre-eminently, therefore, 

 the species best suited to Egypt and Sind. The experiments 

 at present being conducted by Mr. Balls to shorten the period of 

 growth and at the same time lengthen the staple are calculated 

 to prove of the greatest possible value not only to Egypt, but to 

 all countries for which this particular cotton is specially suited. 



Cf. Poiret, ' Diet, des Scienc. Nat. xi.,' 1818, p. 39 ; Bouteron, ' Le Coton 

 d'Egypte,' Brussels, 1895 ; Jumelle, ' Cult. Colon. PI. Indust.,' 1901, pp. 1-27. 



36. G. MEXICANUM, Tod., Belaz. Cult, dei Cot. 193 t. vi., et XIL, 

 /. 32. 



Mexican cotton and the bulk of the Upland Americans, &c., &c. 

 Descrip- This plant is often extremely difficult to distinguish from 



bon * G. ywrpurascens when seen in foliage only, but from the members of 



the present section it is instantly recognised by its broad, smooth 

 glabrescent leaves, which are entire or 5-7-lobed and veined, the 

 latter radiating and having 1 to 3 glands beneath ; peduncle (or 

 naked shoot) much prolonged, but the pedicels remarkably short and 

 bearing relatively very small, pale-coloured flowers, which are 

 almost completely embraced by the exceptionally broad, deeply 

 auricled, almost bijugate, membraneous bracteoles ; calyx 5-toothed ; 

 seeds large with a dense woolly fuzz, or at times a thin or even but 

 imperfectly formed fuzz (assuming the form of a rufous crown to the 

 seed), and a floss which is white or grey, copious and woolly in 

 texture (see Plates Nos. 39, 40, 41, 42). 



A shrubby species usually seen to have a few long shaggy hairs on the 

 petioles, pedicels, and veins, but to become glabrous, owing to the peculiarity 

 often seen of throwing off its cuticle (whether naturally or only as a conse- 

 quence of parasitic action seems uncertain), twigs round and smooth, pale - 

 coloured, usually very obscurely and minutely gland-dotted. Leaves, except 

 on the veins, almost quite glabrous, and gland dots of two kinds, one set 

 large, the other very minute or absent, smooth, thin, membraneous, broad 

 ovate, sub-rotund, suddenly acuminate, cordate, prominently auricled, entire 

 or 3- to 5-lobed, lobes broadly ovate triangular, sinus between the lobes often 



