IMPROVEMENT OF STOCKS 321 



much from one another in the period of maturity and the quantity 

 and quality of their yield ; nor are new forms readily produced even 

 where many kinds are grown side by side.' 



It has sometimes been upheld, but with little justification, that Hybrids, 

 the crossing of fuzzy-seeded and naked-seeded cottons (the so-called 

 Asiatic and American cottons) was impossible (see p. 165, 190, &c.). 

 But there is perhaps no subject on which greater diversity of opinion 

 exists, than that of the value (or even possibility) of hybridisation 

 within the genus Gossypium. One set of writers affirm that it 

 is difficult to prevent hybridisation ; while another stoutly upholds 

 the belief that it is of no practical value, if they do not indeed go 

 so far as to deny absolutely its accomplishment in'nature. A parallel 

 to this diversity (and perhaps a consequent one) is the degree of 

 acceptance of the species as established by botanists. Some writers, 

 such as Todaro, think there may be as many as fifty-four species, while 

 others, such as Parlatore, reduce them to seven, and Aliotta (followed 

 by Wildeman, cf. Fasc. iv. of Mission of E. Laurent to Congo, 1907, 

 pp. 389-95) to five, with numerous varieties and cultivated races or 

 hybrids under each. Buchanan-Hamilton went even further, and 

 reduced all to two (or perhaps three) species, viz. the black (naked) 

 seeded and the white (fuzzy) seeded, with as a third the red (khaki) 

 seeded cottons. In a letter written to Wallich (in November 1828) 

 Hamilton says ' Although I am inclined to think that there is really 

 only one species of cotton plant, this is to be taken in the sense used One 

 by the botanists of the true Linnean school ; and by no means super- s P cies of 

 sedes the necessity of choice in selecting seed of a good kind for 

 cultivation. A Crab apple and a Newington Pepin belong to the 

 same species, but you may work to eternity with the seed of a Crab 

 without producing one eatable apple, much less a Pepin.' (Prin, 

 ' Sketch of the Life of Francis Hamilton (once) Buchanan,' p. xxxv). 



The controversy regarding the number of species dates from even 

 before the formation botanically of the genus Gossypium, but I 

 venture to think it could never have existed, and cannot exist to-day, 

 when the undoubted wild forms are made the basis of classification. 



Arboreous versus Herbaceous Cottons. To understand this subject Arbo- 

 fully it is necessary to carry our study a little further back, and to 

 investigate some of the primary conceptions in the formation of 

 cultivated plants. The history of cotton improvement, so far as it 

 has been written, would seem to point to certain important phases 

 or stages. The story opens with primitive man content with 



T 



