270 



WILD AND CULTIVATED COTTONS 



Barbados 

 speci- 

 mens. 



Sea Island 

 a modern 

 stock. 



Hybrid. 



gardens about the close of the seventeenth century, and very possibly 

 were raised from seed procured from the West Indies. 



In vol. 184, f. 28 (Petiver's herb.) will be found a specimen of 

 cotton, one of a general herbarium obtained from Barbados and 

 Jamaica. This matches in some respects Plukenet's type specimen 

 (vol. 100, f. 105), but is perhaps more nearly related to the leaves in 

 vols. 84 and 85, in other words it is nearer to G. vitifolium than G. 

 barbadense. It is, however, the oldest authentic specimen that has 

 any chance of having come from Barbados, and it most emphatically 

 is not G. barbadense as known to us in the modern Sea Island cotton. 

 Eohr was for some years (toward the close of the eighteenth century) 

 a resident in the Danish island of Sainte-Croix. During that time 

 he devoted much attention to the study of the species of Gossypium 

 there grown. He makes no mention of any plant that could be 

 identified with the Sea Island cotton of modern commerce. 



Further it may here be pointed out that Kichard Ligon (' Hist. 

 Barbados,' 1657) was one of the earliest writers who described the 

 island of Barbados. He gives many interesting particulars of the 

 natural products and industries, especially sugar-cane planting, but 

 has very little to say regarding cotton. He makes no mention of its 

 being wild, but states that, while much land was available for cotton 

 (p. 94), he had seen only five acres (p. 22) under the crop. Inci- 

 dentally he alludes by name to cotton-wool in several places (pp. 24 

 and 40) as one of the new products that the merchant ships which 

 have begun to visit the island have commenced to carry away, but 

 gives no sort of justification for the belief that on the island a spe- 

 cially meritorious cotton existed, previous to the European settlers, 

 such as the plant which subsequently came to be called G. barbad- 

 ense, var. maritima. 



Such then in brief are the historic specimens of this, the most 

 valuable of all cottons. They point, I venture to think, conclusively 

 to the Sea Island cotton being a modern development, and further to 

 the conviction, brought home by other circumstances, namely, that 

 there is little or no evidence in support of the belief that it is in- 

 digenous to Barbados nor in fact to any of the West Indian Islands. 

 The plant is so closely associated with G. vitifolium as to suggest its 

 indigenous habitat being somewhere in South America. But it is 

 highly probable the modern stock is a hybrid. 



Mention has just been made of the Duchess of Beaufort and of 

 the Badminton gardens. It will be recollected that these gardens are 



