346 



WILD AND CULTIVATED COTTONS 



Different 

 grains 

 often seen 

 in same 

 anther. 



Hybrids 

 indicated 

 by pollen- 

 grains. 



appendages of the exine would seem to afford characters by which 

 it is fairly easy to isolate some at least of the various forms of 

 cotton grains. It is difficult to find precise terms to indicate these 

 peculiarities that would not be likely to convey false meanings, from 

 their strict usages being with cellular and vascular tissues. 



It would, however, from the circumstances mentioned, seem 

 fairly certain that the characteristics of the pollen -grains in Gossypia 

 are not generic. In fact they are representative of the pollen- 

 grains seen in all four tribes of MALVACEAE viz. Malvea, UrenecB, 

 HibiscecB and Bombacea. This I do not venture to account for 

 at present. So many distinctive forms are, in fact, present, that 

 it would be more nearly correct to regard them as affording 

 specific distinctions. But what is perhaps the most startling 

 circumstance of all has now to be mentioned: namely, that in 

 many instances more than one form and size of grain is present 

 in one and the same andrcecium. The suspicion that these might 

 be stages in the growth or age of the grains may perhaps be viewed 

 as instantly dispelled by their constancy alike in young buds and fully 

 developed flowers, as also by their reappearance in the self-same 

 plant wherever met with or under whatever environment produced. 



In all the artificially formed hybrids examined by me, two or more 

 forms of pollen-grains were invariably found present, as, for example, 

 in the hybrids produced by Professor Gammie at Poona. In his 

 goghari x varadi three spores were found (see Plate 53, ff. 13, 14, 15). 

 Of these three spores, f. 15 is almost exactly that seen in the wild 

 states of O. obtusifolium ; f. 14 would appear to have come from 

 G. Nanking ; and f. 13 brings to mind G. hirsutum (see 52, f. 6) 

 (cf. p. 111). I have not attempted to ascertain the relative propor- 

 tions of each form present, but doubtless that aspect should command 

 consideration. 



Since G. hirsutum is in India extensively cultivated, mixed with 

 the purely Indian stocks, the appearance of this spore might be, 

 perhaps, viewed as not unnatural. So again in the chief cultivated 

 races of cotton, accepted by me from other evidence as most probably 

 being hybrids, two spores are in almost every instance present. 

 For example in the Upland cottons two spores are invariable (see 

 Plate 52, ff. 5 and 6). Similarly Sea Island has also two spores (see 

 Plate 53, f. 11 and f. 18, and conf. with pp. 287, 315, 335), and 

 G. peruvianum (Plate 53, f. 20) has also two spores, the one shown 

 and the other that of G. brasiliense (f. 18). It would thus seem likely 



