278 



WILD AND CULTIVATED COTTONS 



Crossed 

 with fuzzy 

 cotton. 



Changed 

 from per- 

 ennial to 

 annual. 



Early 

 account. 



The cultivation of Sea Island cotton that was formerly carried on to 

 a slight extent in Louisiana and Texas has been discontinued in that 

 region. All of this Sea Island cotton is of one distinct type, without 

 any marked varieties and but slight variation. The leaves are all 

 rather deeply 3-lobed, with a long central lobe. The bolls are rather 

 long-pointed and almost universally 3-locked, that is 3-celled. The 

 seeds are usually naked. This species crosses readily with American: 

 Upland cotton, and in many instances the results of the cross show 

 in fuzzy seeds. The cultivation of Sea Island cotton has recently 

 been taken up on a commercial scale in the British West Indies, and 

 also in Cuba and Porto Eico, the seed having been secured chiefly in 

 South Carolina.' (Cf. with the observations made under G. hirsutum, 

 p. 194-5.) 



Foaden (Z.c.), speaking of the true Sea Island cotton, observes that 

 1 It is grown in America on a few small sandy islands off the coast of 

 South Carolina and Georgia, and on the lowlands near the sea in these 

 States as well as in Florida. It cannot be successfully raised inland, 

 as the quality greatly deteriorates.' ' The origin of the plant is some- 

 what doubtful, and when first introduced into America it was entirely 

 different to its present form.' With this last opinion I most com- 

 pletely concur. Many writers, for example, say that when first intro- 

 duced into America the Sea Island cotton was a perennial, and that 

 owing to the shortness of the summer in South Carolina and Georgia 

 it rarely matured fruit. Through the accident of a mild winter and 

 the selection of early maturing pods, when combined with more 

 advantageous methods of cultivation, a stock had been gradually 

 matured with an annual habit directly adapted to the climatic condi- 

 tions of a limited tract of country in the United States. This new 

 and very special stock embraces all the finest grades and the most 

 valuable cottons of the world, and is hi fact the true Sea Island. 



One of the earliest descriptions of the area of Sea Island cotton of 

 the modern traffic of the United States, would appear to be that given 

 in a little book (' Travels to the Alleghany Mountains through Ohio r 

 Kentucky and Tenessee back to Charleston in 1802 ') written by F. A. 

 Michaux and published in 1805, in which definite mention is made of 

 Sea Island cotton, and this is perhaps the first authentic and detailed 

 account of it. He says : ' In winter the markets of Charleston are 

 well stocked with live sea-fish, which are brought from the northern 

 part of the United States in vessels so constructed as to keep them 

 in a continual supply, of water. The ships engaged in this kind ol 



