SECTION IV : ANTILLES COTTON 267 



thrown extra axillary and almost opposite the leaf, but do not form glands 

 within the cordatures of the bracteoles ; bracteoles fairly large, glabrate, 

 with pale coloured veins, ovate oblong, 5-7, not very deeply but coarsely 

 toothed, cordate, attached to the calyx tube but only very slightly united 

 or quite free. Flowers medium sized, often not quite double the length of 

 bracteoles, occasionally much larger ; petals woolly on outer margin, rotating 

 to right, pale yellow with purple tinge, diffused rather than maculated purple 

 claw, tube short but firmly formed. Calyx wide campanulate, crenate, with 

 large rounded teeth, many-veined, and with rows of glands between. Fruit 

 ovate-acuminate, most often 3-, more rarely 4-valved, opening fairly widely, 

 but valves not reflexed ; seeds 6 to 9 in each cell, ovate, beaked, smooth, free 

 from each other and almost quite naked; wool long silky, and very fine, 

 easily separable from the seeds. 



Habitat. Hemsley says of this species, ' Cultivated and wild, Antilles, 

 probably indigenous in America ' ; and Schumann (Martius, ' Fl. Bras.') Central 

 remarks, ' specially cultivated in the islands of the Antilles and in America. 

 Central America, more rarely in N. America and the tropics of the 

 Old World.' Tussac (' Flora of the Antilles ') speaks in general 

 terms of an indigenous species, with very superior floss, and then 

 proceeds to describe four species as cultivated. These seem to be 

 G. pur-pur ascens, G. hirsutum, G. brasiliense, and G. Nanking. His 

 plate is most probably G. vitifolium, and may therefore have been 

 the indigenous plant to which he alludes. Eohr, who a century ago 

 lived in the West Indies and wrote a book on cotton (' Obs. sur la 

 Cult, du Coton,' 1790, et ed. Gall., 1807), makes no direct mention of 

 G. barbadense. Koster (' Trav. in Brazil,' 1816, p. 365) in a footnote 

 asks, ' Might not the Sea Island seed be sent for, and a trial of it 

 made ? ' This observation was in connection with his statement in 

 the text that the cotton of Pernambuco never succeeded near the sea 

 coast. Grisebach observes (' Fl. Br. W. Ind.,' 1864, p. 86) that it ' is 

 said to grow spontaneously in the West Indies ; I have examined 

 only two West Indian forms.' But as already remarked, the speci- 

 mens seen by me in Grisebach herbarium appear to be G. brasiliense 

 and G. ? mexicanum, and, therefore, neither of them G. barbadense. 

 Very possibly, however, G. barbadense may have been originally 

 cultivated in the Antilles, and within the past two centuries been 

 developed into several distinct races, and its cultivation thus extended 

 throughout the whole of the West Indies, and more recently along 

 the maritime tracts of the Southern States of North America, also 

 of Central and South America. Its further cultivation in Egypt, 

 Africa, India, and elsewhere, has been vigorously attempted, but 

 mostly with indifferent success. 



