INFLUENCES OF SPECIFIC AREAS 323 



viz. the plant now known as G. herbaceum. This became distributed 

 from the shores of the Caspian, the Black Sea and the Mediterranean 

 south and south-eastward to Egypt, Abyssinia, Arabia, Persia, and 

 the frontier of India. It was the cotton plant first seen and 

 cultivated by Europeans (see pp. 155-63). 



In India itself, and probably also in Africa as well, another great India : 

 annual stock originated, namely G. obtusifolium. This, while closely lca " 

 associated with the ancient Hindu civilisation, as well as with the 

 rise of the world's modern trade in cotton, has not been cultivated 

 very much beyond the limits of the countries of its original 

 production (see pp. 139-55) 



But there exists what may be called a third great Asiatic species, Central 

 namely G. Nanking. Where this exactly originated, as a cultivated Q^ & 

 stock, cannot, I am afraid, be definitely ascertained, but it is met with 

 from the Caspian westward through Turkestan and Central Asia, and 

 lapping over the Himalaya it enters India in one or two directions, 

 and is finally distributed to Burma, Siam, China and Japan. It exists, 

 however, even more frequently as a perennial than as an annual, and 

 has possibly not as yet attained its highest development. Its 

 pollen-grains are structurally nearer to those of certain American 

 fuzzy-seeded cottons than to those of any Asiatic species (see 

 p. 345). So far as historic evidence goes the Chinese would seem to 

 have procured their stock of cultivated cotton through the Arab 

 traders, somewhere about the tenth century. But it by no means 

 follows that the Arabs carried this particular species to China. A 

 cotton plant was known in China before cotton fibre cultivation 

 engaged attention. The present species stands every chance in fact 

 of being indigenous to some part of the vast area of China itself or of 



Central Asia. It is a mountain-loving form that does not demand Mountain- 



lovioff 

 proximity to sea influence, but will luxuriate in the interior of species. 



continents (see pp. 114-39). But it may be questioned how far it is 

 a pure species. Many of the better known races would seem to be 

 undoubted hybrids. 



Such then are some of the classic areas and species, but with the 

 discovery of America several new phases in the story of cotton dawned 

 on the civilised world. A species previously unknown to Europe and 

 Asia at once attracted attention, and, for perhaps a century, held sway 

 as the most important cotton of the world. It was described as ' the Green- 

 very excellent American cotton with green seeds.' Elsewhere (see 

 pp. 19, 186-9, 192, &c.) I have shown that we have every reason for 



TS 



