324 



WILD AND CULTIVATED COTTONS 



American 



and 



African 



wild 



cottons. 



Central 

 and South 

 America. 



History 

 of Upland 

 cottons. 



Black. 



seeded 

 cotton. 



believing that the great English gardener of the eighteenth century, 

 Philip Miller, was closely and honourably associated with the dis- 

 covery and distribution of this new stock, and to that cultivated 

 plant Linnaeus gave the name of G. hirsutum (see pp. 183-204). 



There is every probability, however, that it was derived from 

 G. punctatum (see pp. 44, 168-82), the wild species that I have 

 characterised as demarcating the fuzzy-seeded cottons of modern com- 

 merce. It will be seen, moreover, that I have accepted two varieties 

 of that species, one indigenous to the eastern shores of America 

 from Alabama to Costa Eica (see pp. 170, 172), the other to the 

 west coast tracts of Africa (see pp. 170, 173-4). It is possible, 

 however, that these should be viewed as species, not varieties. If my 

 theory be correct we have accordingly two great and distinct strains 

 in the forms of G. hirsutum cultivation, the one African, the other 

 American. But to these were rapidly linked a long succession of 

 other influences, and henceforward the progress made, especially 

 in America, may be described as not only vigorous, but phenomenal. 

 The first and most valuable of these came from Mexico and may 

 be spoken of as represented by G. mexicanum (see pp. 226-41). 

 It seems likely that a flood of light may be thrown on the study of 

 American cotton by a critical examination of the forms that have 

 survived on the Galapagos Islands (see p. 69). 



So in the same way Central and South America were found to 

 possess several very distinct cultivated cottons, as well as a fairly 

 extensive assortment of wild species, many of which, on the great 

 industry of the United States coming prominently into existence, at 

 once commenced to exercise their varied influences on the rapidly 

 multiplying new stocks (see pp. 204-26). 



Improvement was pushed forward in most parts of the cotton 

 area, but in the United States the Uplands gradually advanced into 

 larger leaved and less hairy forms, thus accentuating the distinctive 

 peculiarities of var. Jamaica, by hybridisation very possibly with 

 G. mexicanum. In Africa, on the other hand, the more distinctly 

 G. hirsutum (var. nigeria) type was preserved, though when carried 

 to the United States this also was developed and hybridised, thus 

 originating a more hairy series, but one that is otherwise parallel 

 with that traceable to G. mexicanum. 



From South America (Venezuela and Guiana, &c.), as also from 

 the Antilles, there came still another great cotton, one spoken of as 

 black-seeded, because its long silky floss separated readily from the 



