274 



WILD AND CULTIVATED COTTONS 



Sea Island 

 as a com- 

 mercial 

 fibre. 



Twelve 

 Hybrids. 



Long 



Staple 



Uplands. 



I have failed to identify, while still others can only be retained in 

 that position if all the cultivated cottons of the world be regarded as 

 constituting but one species. 



When we first make acquaintance with Sea Island cotton as an 

 important commercial fibre, the plant is found to have departed 

 materially from the botanical characteristics of G. barbadense as 

 originally defined and illustrated by the early writers. There have, in 

 fact, come into existence at least two chief grades of the staple, the 

 separate recognition of which led Todaro to establish his G. mari- 

 timum and other allied forms. The plant has become more vigorous, 

 the leaves, when fully formed, very large and often 5-lobed, in shape 

 approximating very much more closely to G. brasiliense, Macf., than 

 to the original condition of G. barbadense, Linn., as defined above. 



To some extent in explanation of this state of affairs, Dr. Aliotta 

 (I.e. 28-55) has endeavoured to distinguish eight separate forms that 

 he regards as hybrids of G. barbadense x G. hirsutum, and four 

 more which he treats as hybrids of G. barbadense x G. religiosum. 

 Under these he assorts many obscure and doubtfully distinct forms 

 treated as species or varieties by Todaro and others. It may be 

 useful to exhibit these twelve supposed hybrids by name : First 

 Series 1. G. maritimum, Tod. ; 2. G. maritimum, var. Jumeliana, 

 Tod. ', 3. G. maritimum, var. degenerata, Tod. ; 4. G. maritimum, 

 var. polycarpa, Tod. ; 5. G. maritimum, var. pallidiflora, Tod. ; 6. G. 

 hirsutum, var. Hardyana, Tod. ; 7. G. hirsutum, var. intermedia, 

 Tod. ; and 8. G. Figarei, Tod. Second Series 9. G. acuminatum, 

 Roxb. ; 10. G. barbadense, var. acuminata, Mast. ', 11. G. peruvianum, 

 Cav. ; and 12. G. frutescens, Lasteyr. 



Had Dr. Aliotta spoken of G. brasiliense (the plant he calls G. 

 religiosum) as the chief stock that had hybridised G. barbadense, I 

 should have been prepared to concur; but I feel fairly certain G. 

 hirsutum has in no way contributed to the formation of Sea Island, 

 though it has doubtless been one of the ancestors with G. barbadense 

 in the formation of Allen and other Long Staple Uplands. But I am 

 unable to identify some of the plants named above, and regard others 

 as probably only cultivated states (possibly themselves hybrids), 

 while I view still a few others as most likely quite unconnected with 

 G. barbadense. Further, I am disposed to sweep all the undoubted 

 forms of this species, in the above and other such enumerations, that 

 cannot be accepted as G. barbadense, Linn., proper, or G. vitifolium, 

 Lamk., into one variety, as follows : 



