SECTION IV : BOURBON COTTONS 251 



and blistering, though the very tips may be pilose. Leaves often stellately Descrip- 

 pubescent below, especially on the veins, and when young broad-ovate, tion. 

 prominently acuminate and apiculate, deeply cordate, occasionally entire, 

 more frequently regularly 3- or very occasionally 5-lobed, the lateral lobea 

 with their tips arching outwards (not ascending as in G. taitense) sinus 

 between the lobes rounded, open flat (not thrown up in folds), 1 to 4 inches 

 broad by 1 \ to 3 inches long ; petiole straight, rigid, usually longer than 

 the blade, glabrous ; veins 5-7 with an obscure gland on the middle vein, 

 a vein which is seen below as if it ran straight through the others into 

 the petiole without uniting with them ; stipules ovate oblique linear, 

 prominent and persistent on the annual shoots, especially below the 

 pedicels. Inflorescence leafy lateral rigid shoots, bearing one or more 

 flowers and one or more small-sized ovate entire or lobed leaves ; bracteoJes 

 practically free to the base, glabrous, ovate, sub-rotund, acute, deeply auricled, 

 gashed into 7-9 long linear lanceolate teeth ; pedicels short angled, ending 

 in thickened cavernous glands. Flowers small yellow with a purplish tinge, 

 and often even with deep stains on the claws ; petals minutely woolly on 

 the outer margin ; calyx wide campanulate from a distinct tubular base, 

 crenately or dentately toothed, sometimes even acuminate, but not tailed as 

 in G. taitense, glabrous, many-veined, glands alternating with the bracteoles, 

 inconspicuous. Fruit oblong acuminate, 3-4-celled, circular in transverse 

 section ; seeds ovate acute or beaked, not angled, with a rusty tuft of fuzz 

 around the beak, otherwise black, smooth, naked ; wool pure white, soft, 

 silky, easily removable. 



Habitat. An essentially insular cultivated plant (though often Insular 

 met with as an escape). Eecorded between the 20 N. and 20 S. re s ions - 

 latitude from Hainan to New Caledonia, and westward to the 

 Andaman Islands, South India, Madagascar, East Africa, Upper 

 Egypt, and the West Indies. 



Citation of Specimens. In the Kew Herbarium there are examples Speci- 

 from: CHINA: Hainan, B. Swinhoe; INDIA: Pabna, Herb Hook. f. and mens - 

 T. T. ; the Andaman Islands, Kurz ; South India, Bottler's herb, (named 

 G. religiosum) ; Boyle's sample named G. barbadense and Wight's n. 180, 

 which in Kew Herbarium is this species and in Glasgow is G. mexi- 

 canum. POLYNESIA : New Caledonia, E. Caldwell and Diego Garcia, G. C. 

 Bourne, n. 33 (it was found not far from Point Marianne, 'but from 

 its position I should not think that it had been imported '). AFRICA : 

 Livingstone's South African Expedition, ' Cotton growing uncultivated on the 

 sands near the Kongone mouth of the Zambesi, November 25, 1859 ' ; 

 Nubische Kuste, collected by Dr. G. Schweinfurth, 1867, n. 1,605 ; Bar-el- 

 Ghazal, collected by H. Broun, n. 77 (a single plant growing in Zareba at the 

 Pongo Station), n. 79 from Badaris, n. 70 from Limbos, and n. 655 Mountaz 

 Cotton from Abdin Sennar, so also Mr. Broun's ' Wild Cotton of the Khor 

 Attar, White Nile,' n. 67 (is doubtless this plant, which, both in India and 

 Africa, is often met with in a semi-wild condition) ; Kordofan, Steudner, 

 n. 115. MASCARENB ISLANDS : Madagascar (Voyage, M. de Boivin, 1847-52, 

 and second sample by W. W. Perry from same locality). WEST INDIES : 



