SECTION IV: G. BARBADENSE 273 



cotton was, for example, famed even in the middle of the seventeenth 

 century, and as a result doubtless of the early European traffic of 

 India and the Malaya with South America, the self-same plant came 

 to be figured and described by Eumphius as cultivated in the Celebes, 

 prior to any definite knowledge of its introduction into the United 

 States. In the Linnean Herbarium there is a solitary leaf and flower 

 not described by Linnaeus, but which in his own handwriting 

 bears the word ' Surin ' as if abbreviated for Surinam. (See Plate 

 No. 49 A.) I hesitate to definitely name that fragment, but think it 

 stands every chance of being either G. vitifolium (see p. 255), or 

 possibly G. brasiliense (see p. 295). The small flower and fimbriate 

 teeth of the braoteoles would favour the former. Later on when we 

 learn of the efforts put forth to improve the stock of the Southern 

 States, repeated mention is made of the valuable results obtained 

 with Mexican plants. All this has been narrated already, under 

 G. vitifolium, but its importance cannot be over-stated, since to trace 

 out the nativity of a cultivated plant very often means to discover 

 the environment essential to secure successful production. 



G. barbadense, as we know it to-day, may have been de- Not indi- 

 veloped by cultivation in the West Indies ; but if so, the original S^w* L 

 stock most certainly was not indigenous to these islands, and the Indies, 

 plant, as now recognised, was unknown to the early West Indian 

 botanists. This belief, then, gives a flat contradiction to the oft- 

 repeated recommendation for an extended production in the West 

 Indies, on the ground of the plant being there indigenous. This 

 does not, however, in any way gainsay its successful acclimatisation 

 in these islands. It has, in fact, recently been successfully grown 

 in some of them. It is therefore surprising that, while historic 

 and botanic evidence combine in so remarkable a fashion to isolate 

 G. vitifolium and the cultivated states of the so-called G. barbadense, 

 one of the most recent botanical writers of the United States, Dr. 

 Walter H. Evans, should have been led to publish as indicative of 

 G. barbadense, a ' compiled description,' as he calls it, that embraces 

 the characteristics of all the following forms ' G. barbadense, Linn. ; 

 G. frutescens, Lasteyr ; G. fuscum, Eoxb. ; G. glabrum, Lam.; G, 

 jamaicense, Macf. ; G. javanicum, Blume ; G. maritimum, Tod. ; 

 G. nigrum, Hamilton ; G. oligospermum, Macf. ; G. perenne, Blanco ; 

 G. peruvianum, Cav. ; G.punctatum, Schum. and Thon. ; G. racemosum, 

 Poir. ; G. religiosum, Parl.; G. vitifolium, Eoxb., and perhaps others.' 

 Some of the above are doubtless synonyms of G. barbadense, others 



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