262 



WILD AND CULTIVATED COTTONS 



Obscurity 



and con- 

 fliction. 



Nine 

 forms. 



Wild 



cotton. 



this plant should be distinguished from the Sea Island and also 

 from the Bourbon cottons, to both of which it is closely allied. 



The fact (already mentioned) that Surinam cotton was famed 

 some time prior to the first mention of the Sea Island staple ; and the 

 still further fact that numerous writers allude to the cotton of the 

 southern of the United States of America as having been improved 

 by the importation of Mexican cotton, supports belief in this being 

 probably one of the chief ancestors (or at all events representing one 

 of the chief ancestors) of some of the best cottons of the world. 



The descriptions given by the authors just mentioned, and by 

 most, if not all, the modern writers as well, do not, however, agree 

 in certain respects. Still there seems little doubt the passages above 

 cited and others that could be added were intended to denote the 

 plant here indicated. 



Lamarck described G. mtifolium as having leaves 5-lobed, and 

 Cavanilles amplified that view by stating that the leaves on the lower 

 part of the stem were 5-lobed, those of the younger twigs 3-lobed. 

 G. mtifolium is, however, in point of foliage often almost inseparable 

 from G. brasiliense, but the seeds are free from each other. It ia 

 therefore, instantly removed from Todaro's sub-section Synspermia 

 (into which that author placed it) and carried to a position alongside 

 G. barbadense, Linn. Roxburgh mistook G. peruvianum for this 

 plant, and his MS. plate is undoubtedly G. brasiliense, not G. viti- 

 folium. The obscurity and oonfliction that prevail, regarding it, 

 thus very largely proceed from the errors of certain botanists in con- 

 fusing it with G. brasiliense and G. peruvianum. 



Eohr, who over a century ago lived in the Danish West Indies, 

 made, as he tells us, a tour in 1790 of all the neighbouring islands 

 and mainland of South America in order to study cotton cultivation 

 and to collect seed for trial in Sainte-Croix. He was accompanied 

 by a Dr. P. Dunkan, who finally went to Scotland to investigate 

 cotton spinning and to show the assortment of samples of cotton 

 collected by himself and M. Bohr with a view to the spinners 

 selecting the best sorts for their trades. Eohr and Dunkan procured, 

 among many others, nine forms of cotton which the former places 

 in his section (A) (namely 'Cottons whose seed- are rough and 

 black'). These nine cottons I have little doubt are one and all 

 forms of G. mtifolium or of G. barbadense, whichever scientific name 

 it is preferred to use. One Bohr calls ' Wild Cotton 'the plant 

 which he says is by the French designated ' Naked Cotton ' and in 



