SECTION III : MEXICAN COTTON 227 



thrown up in folds, leaves broader than long, 3 to 6 inches across, from tip 

 to tip of lateral lobes and 2 to 4 inches from apex of central lobe to cordature 

 of the base ; petiole very long, 3 to 6 inches, prominent thick round, usually 

 almost glandular curved and pinkish-coloured, with a tuft of hair near the 

 extremity ; veins, 5 to 7, or even 9, all united together into a flattened and 

 web-footed formation, within the cordature, from which the veins radiate and 

 arch upwards, the central and first pair of laterals having prominent crater- 

 glands below ; stipules ovate oblong to lanceolate, very large, and more or 

 less persistent. Inflorescence in the early stage lateral axillary shoots, that 

 usually consist of a pronounced and rigid internode that may be called the 

 peduncle (as long or longer than the petiole), which bears on its apex a well- 

 formed entire leaf, on a long erect petiole, within its axil, but thrown off to 

 one side, a short pedicel with frequently a nodding flower ; sometimes the 

 flowering shoot elongates or becomes, as it were, proliferous, and consists 

 of a second (or even a third) naked internode, each with a well-formed large 

 entire leaf and a small flower ; and ultimately the flowers are solitary or 

 clustered in the axils of the leaves of elongating leafy shoots ; bracteoles 

 broad ovate rotund, deeply auricled, gashed into 7 to 9 long deltoid 

 acuminate, often fimbriated teeth, two bracteoles usually thrown to one side 

 of the flower and the third on the opposite position, thus simulating a bijugate 

 condition ; pedicel relatively very short, J to 1 inch long, thrown acutely to 

 one side or deflected, angled, almost sub-winged through folds extending 

 from the base of the bracteoles, scarcely thickened upwards. Floiuers small, 

 pale yellow or white, with a pink flush, and sometimes irregular darker 

 coloured small blotches on the claws ; corolla small, petals obliquely 

 truncate, hardly exceeding the teeth of the bracteoles, minutely gland-dotted 

 and with very short tomentum on the outer margin ; calyx large, glabrous, 

 many-nerved, cut into 5 large ovate deltoid or rounded teeth. Fruit ovate 

 oblong acuminate, 4-5-valved, only partially opening; seeds fairly large, 

 ovate acute minutely beaked, with ash-coloured fuzz and copious woolly 

 floss, of a dull white to reddish colour in some of the states the seed is 

 almost naked, thus coming very close to G. purpurascens, but in the more 

 highly cultivated states it is frequently completely coated with fuzz, thus 

 approaching to G. hirsutum. 



Habitat. Apparently originally procured from Mexico, but Mexico, 

 recorded by botanists from India, Africa, West Indies, United States 

 of America, &c., but only recorded as met with under cultivation. 

 From a large assortment of samples recently sent for my inspection 

 by Mr. L. H. Dewey, from the Bureau of Plant Industry of the 

 United States, I am convinced the best Upland cottons would be 

 more correctly described as cultivated states of this plant rather 

 than as forms of G. hirsutum. But the botanical name given to 

 these essentially modern cottons is immaterial so long as they are 

 not regarded as absolutely either G. hirsutum or G. mexicanum. 



Citation of Specimens. In the Herbarium of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Speci- 

 Kew, there are numerous samples of this plant, such as from ARMENIA : mens. 

 C. Haussknecht ; from INDIA : Wall. Cat. No. 1875 (named G. vitifolium 



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