HYBRIDISATION 335 



For fully half a century South America and the Antilles did a 

 large trade in supplying Brazilian cotton. There were, in fact, two 

 chief grades of cotton then known in the markets of Europe, viz. 

 Levantine and Brazilian. 



The picture Eohr gives us of a West Indian plantation is most Stock im- 

 instructive ; it would consist chiefly of Guiana and Brazil cottons ^r est 

 both of them forms of G. brasiliense intermixed with several forms Indies, 

 of G. barbadense (the most prevalent being that called ' Year round,' 

 and lastly several distinct races of G. purpurascens Bourbon 

 cotton (see pp. 254, 263). But the early planters of the West Indies 

 set before themselves the task of improving both the quality and the 

 yield of their cottons, and there seems little doubt made immense 

 progress only to abandon further effort through the greater popularity 

 of sugar-planting. It is thus permissible to assume that, before 

 cotton cultivation was displaced by sugar, the great Sea Island cotton 

 stock had been evolved in the West Indies, and that most probably 

 it is a hybrid between G. barbadense (G. vitifolium) and G. brasiliense. 

 In a further passage (p. 346) it will be seen this view is apparently 

 upheld by an inspection of the pollen grains. 



As an historic fact in Indian hybridisation it may be mentioned Indian 

 that in 1844 Mr. Alex. Burns of Broach crossed G. obtusifolium var. 

 Wightiana with G. arboreum. He obtained a plant that had all the 

 good points of both parents. The leaves were those of arboreum, 

 only larger and more hairy, and the flowers were red with a yellow 

 ring in the throat. This interesting new form, apparently a first 

 generation hybrid, blossomed and thereafter yielded its crop within 

 the space of two months, much as in Broach deshi, and the floss 

 was very silky. The Bombay Chamber of Commerce expressed the 

 opinion that the cross was an exceedingly valuable one. No further 

 information was, however, published regarding it, and the plant seems 

 to have died out. The circumstance is mentioned to show that 

 crosses are possible. (For further particulars see p. 89.) 



There would seem, moreover, little doubt that the cotton designated 

 by Eohr as Porto Eico is the plant accepted by me as G. microcarpum, 

 Tod. Eohr (I. c. pp. 11, 64-6) describes it as hairy, the seeds covered 

 all over with down, and so pressed together that they form a 

 pyramidal mass. I have shown elsewhere (p. 213) that this 

 particular plant is met with only under cultivation, and in all 

 probability is a hybrid produced very possibly from G. brasiliense or 

 G. barbadense, with G. Schottii, or some other member of the special 



