COT 



COT 



that is, he must make every person and 

 thing sustain its proper character, and 

 not only observe the story, but the cir- 

 cumstances, the scene of action, the 

 country or place, and make the habits, 

 arms, manners, proportions, and the like, 

 to correspond. 



COSTUS, in botany, a genus of the Mo- 

 nundria Monogynia class and order. Na- 

 tural order of Scitaminez. Cannae, Jus- 

 sieu. Essential character : corolla inner, 

 inflated, ringent, the lower lip trifid. 

 There are four species, all natives of the 

 East and West Indies. 



CO-TANGEXT, the tangent of an 

 arch, which is the complement of another 

 to 90 



COT, in naval affairs, a particular sort 

 of bed-frame, suspended from the beams 

 of a ship, for the officers to sleep in. It 

 is made of canvass, sewed in the form of 

 a chest about six feet long, one foot deep, 

 and two or three wide, and is extended 

 by a square wooden frame with a canvass 

 bottom, on which the bed or matrass is 

 laid. It is reckoned much more conve- 

 nient at sea than either the hammocks 

 or fixed cabins. 



COTTON is the produce of the gossy- 

 pium, a plant about the size of a currant 

 bush, a native of the torrid zone, though 

 it is produced in parts of Turkey, so far 

 as 44 or 45 degrees from the equator. 

 The finest cotton is known by the name 

 of cat's-claw, from its singular appearance 

 when it breaks the pod. This kind was 

 accidentally discovered at the island of 

 Bourbon, and was supposed to have been 

 introduced among some seed sent from 

 South America to the Mauritius. The 

 soil should be extremely well prepared, 

 und of the best quality, for the reception 

 of cotton seed, which is usually sown in 

 November or December, after the periodi- 

 cal rains in tropical climates, and ripens 

 in May or June, when the numerous pods, 

 which are about the size of large goose- 

 berries, break, and display their downy 

 contents. These are picked, and after the 

 busks have been disengaged, the cotton is 

 put to a small mill, consisting of two 

 bright steel rollers, each about an inch in 

 diameter, set parallel within the distance 

 of about the twentieth part of an inch. 

 These rollers move different ways, and 

 draw the cotton through between them, 

 while the seeds are forced out of the re- 

 spective little balls of down in which they 

 are enclosed, and drop into a bag. The 

 generality of cotton is white ; but some 

 is of a nankeen colour, and is invaluable 

 in the manufacture of that article, as it 



fades very little, even with long use and 

 frequent washing. The elasticity of cot- 

 ton is inconceivable ! It may be pressed 

 into a fiftieth part of the space into which 

 the strongest packers can reduce it by 

 personal exertion : large screws are erect- 

 ed at many sea-ports where cotton is 

 shipped, for the purpose of bringing the 

 bales into the smallest compass, so as to 

 save freight. Cotton can only be im- 

 ported as a raw material, in which form 

 it comes to us from the Levant, the West 

 Indies, South America, and the East In- 

 dies. In the last quarter there are some 

 kinds indigenous, but some are exotics. 

 The name is obviously derived from the 

 Arabic appellation kuter, which leads us 

 to suppose the cultivation may have ori- 

 ginated in Arabia. The amazing export 

 of cotton fabrics from our settlements in 

 the East created for some time a neces- 

 sity for the manufacturers to import the 

 raw material, and in a few instances the 

 thread, from the country where cotton is 

 cultivated to an immense extent, and 

 where a very fine sort is produced, far 

 superior to what the Levant or the West 

 Indies furnish. Of late years, however, 

 the great demand for this material has 

 excited a strong spirit of enterprize, and 

 enabled the British colonies to raise nearly 

 as much as the looms of the country, and 

 the demand of the mother country, gene- 

 rally require. It is a highly dangerous 

 cargo, being very subject to take fire if 

 at all damp when packed, or if the small- 

 est spark should reach it ; in either case 

 it will burn very slowly for weeks ; but 

 when the hold is opened, and air supplied., 

 bursts forth with inconceivable fury. 

 There is a species of silky down produced 

 in pods, (similar to those of the cotton 

 plant) on a very large tree, called the 

 seemul. It is only fit to fill beds. Speci- 

 mens of it have passed through various 

 hands ; but this kind of cotton is so pe- 

 culiarly glossy, and the fibre is so short, 

 that it could neither be carded nor spun. 

 When mixed with rabbit's fur, &c. to make 

 hats, it always separated. It also failed in 

 paper-making ; otherwise its abundance 

 and cheapness would have rendered it 

 highly valuable. 



COTTON, carding of, as a preparation 

 for spinning, used formerly to be perform- 

 ed by the hand, with a single pair of 

 cards upon the knee ; but this being a te- 

 dious method, ill suited to the rapid ope- 

 rations of the new spinning machines, 

 other methods were contrived for afford- 

 ing a quicker and more adequate supply. 

 The first improvement for this purpose 



