SECTION IV : SOUTH AMERICAN COTTONS 263 



Jainaica ' Withy Wood,' because of its long flexible branches. It is 

 found on most plantations, but though never seen by Bohr (as he 

 explains) in a truly wild condition, is always left to grow as it likes 

 because of the saying ' Cotton is always cotton.' 



It would take too much space to review all the forms described by Green 

 Rohr : one or two must therefore suffice. The ' Green Crown Cotton ' crown - 

 or ' Eine Cotton ' the ' Kum and Sugar Cotton ' of Martinique 

 is called ' green crown ' because of the tuft of fuzz on the apex of the 

 seed, which when young is of that colour, but with age darkens into 

 brown. The 'Green and Eed Sorrel Cottons' of Spanish-Town are 

 so called because of their being suggestive of the Green and Eed 

 Sorrel (Hibiscus Sabdariffa). Jean Eengger introduced these into 

 Sainte-Croix in 1787. But the cotton upon which Eohr expends his 

 greatest descriptive efforts is that called 'Year Eound Cotton' so Year 

 named by the English, so our author explains, because the harvest ^^ 

 commences in one year and is carried into the next. He speaks of 

 two varieties, the coarse and the fine. These have for a long time 

 been grown in the Danish islands. They are sometimes called ' Eum Bum 

 Cottons ' because a sackful as desired could always be disposed of to cotton< 

 the village traders in exchange for rum. Eohr further explains that 

 the cottons which for convenience he had separated as distinct forms 

 under the names 4 Wild Cotton ' ' Cotton with a prominent beak ' and 

 ' Cotton with a booked beak ' were in reality only special forms of 

 ' Year Eound Cotton.' The true year round cotton has always a 

 little tuft of fuzz below and around the beak. It bears from 

 November to March and again from June to September. It was 

 largely cultivated, Eohr remarks, in Montserrat, under the name of 

 1 Loaf Cotton.' The so-called ' Fine Year Eound Cotton ' came 

 originally from Porto Eico, having been furnished by M. Colbiorson 

 in January 1790, but it is possibly a form rather of G. purpurascens 

 than of G. vitifolium. Lastly Eohr tells us of still another form 

 called ' Old Bess," a name supposed to have been given to it from the Old Bess, 

 name of the lady who first cultivated it. It is a large boiled cotton" 

 and gives an abundant return of inferior wool. 



Now I have gone into these details because Eohr is perhaps the 

 earliest planter-author who has left us a detailed record of the cottons 

 actually grown, during the early endeavours of Europeans at cotton 

 cultivation in the West Indies. 



Three points stand out clear regarding every one of these sup- 

 posed G. vitifolium forms, viz : (a) all were perennials and often 



