276 



WILD AND CULTIVATED COTTONS 



Egyptian 

 cottons. 



Introduc- 

 tion into 

 America. 



Pernam- 

 buco seed. 



the proximity to the sea, but there are exceptions to this rule, since 

 that grown on Jamaica and some other islands is of a rather low 

 grade, while the best fibre is produced along the shores of Georgia 

 and Carolina.' 



The uncertainty regarding the climatic requirements of this plant 

 disappears if the view be accepted that in modern commerce several 

 widely distinct stocks are all returned, but wrongly so, as being Sea 

 Island cottons. The bulk of the so-called Sea Island cotton of 

 Egypt, for example, to which Dr. Evans refers as being successfully 

 grown under an atmosphere by no means humid, but with liberal 

 soil moisture (irrigation), is botanically a series of races or hybrids of 

 G. peruvianum, and embraces only rarely forms of G. barbadense, 

 var. maritima. G. peruvianum is, in fact, a plant that frequents 

 regions with fairly dry (non-insular) climates, which are thus more 

 akin to that of Egypt than to the conditions that prevail along the 

 shores of Georgia and Carolina or in the West Indies. Attention to 

 this subject would thus seem of vital importance in order to safe- 

 guard needlessly disappointing experiments being undertaken. 



It may be useful to transcribe here a passage from Donnell (' Hist. 

 Cotton,' 1872, p. 48), even although already partly alluded to, since 

 it gives one version of the story of the introduction of this cotton into 

 America. The origin of the Sea Island cotton is thus related by 

 one Patrick Walsh, in a letter to Dr. Meares : ' I had settled in 

 Kingston, Jamaica, some years ago, when, finding my friend, Frank 

 Leavet, with his family and all his negroes, in a distressed situation, 

 he applied to me for advice as to what steps he should take, having 

 no employment for his slaves. I advised him to go to Georgia and 

 settle on some of the islands, and plant provisions until something 

 better turned up. I sent him a large quantity of various seeds of 

 Jamaica ; and Mr. Moss and Colonel Brown requested me to get 

 some of the Pernambuco cotton seed, of which I sent him three large 

 sacks, of which he made no use but by accident. In a letter to me 

 during the year 1789 he said : " Being in want of the sacks for 

 gathering in my provisions I shook their contents on the dung-hill, 

 and it happened to be a very wet season ; in the spring multitudes of 

 plants covered the place. These I drew out and transplanted them 

 into two acres of ground, and was highly gratified to find an abun- 

 dant crop. This encouraged me to plant more. I used all my 

 strength in cleaning and planting, and have succeeded beyond my 

 most sanguine expectations." ' 



