312 WILD AND CULTIVATED COTTONS 



the fourth wild cotton plant, the first being at Gongoni, the second in 

 the forest between Melindi and Jelori, and the third at Takaungu.' 

 In the appendix to his work Mr. Fitzgerald gives a letter from Mr. J. 

 Weaver, of Margarini Plantation, in which the following passage 

 (p. 638) occurs : ' In returning lately from Mombasa I landed at Kilifi, 

 and walked up, and in passing Eoka I noticed some wild cotton that was 

 looking extremely well, and on examining it found it to be " Kidney 

 Cotton." Please notice from the small sample sent the peculiar ar- 

 rangement of the seeds they are like kidneys.' It should be noted 

 that the opinion of the luxuriance of the wild plant was expressed im- 

 mediately after having reported somewhat unfavourably on the crops 

 of Sea Island cotton experimentally grown at the plantation. 

 Soudan Egypt. Through the kind co-operation of Mr. Broun, as well as 



cotton ^ ^- r ' "^ Lawrence Balls, I have had specimens of this cotton sent 

 to me from Nyam Nyam, in both cases with the same remark that it 

 is the Tree Cotton of the Soudan. With the single exception of the 

 specimen in De Candolle's Herbarium (mentioned under G. viti- 

 folium, p. 258), I have failed to discover in any Herbarium an 

 authentic specimen of the plant which was taken to lower Egypt in 

 1820, and which led to the modern cotton cultivation of the Nile basin, 

 but I am still nevertheless satisfied, from the statements made by 

 writers on this subject and from the study of the Egyptian cottons, 

 Jumel that M. Jumel's white cotton which he found at Cairo and carried to 

 cotton. , Alexandria was the same species as the tree cotton of the Soudan 

 to-day, viz. G. brasiliense. At the very time mentioned Surinam 

 and Brazilian cottons were being experimentally tried in India (see 

 below) and in most cotton-growing countries, because of their then 

 high reputation. In the ' Bulletin du Ministere de 1'Agriculture ' of 

 France, interesting particulars are given regarding Jumel cotton. 

 M. Jumel, who was a Frenchman, had remarked in the garden 

 of one of his friends living near Cairo, certain cotton plants, of 

 which the seeds had been imported from the Soudan. He suc- 

 ceeded in cultivating the plant from seeds which he obtained, and 

 presented certain of them to Mehemet Ali, who, foreseeing the 

 sources of wealth that the cotton might assure to the country, placed 

 at the disposal of Jumel vast extents of territory, and gave him every 

 Com- facility in his enterprise. This cotton was also known by the name 

 cultivff- ^ ma ko, after a Bey in whose gardens Jumel had originally found 

 tion. the first seeds. Several writers on Egypt speak of the Khedive 



having at first made the cultivation of this cotton compulsory, and 



