COTTON 



GOSSYPIUM 



Cotton 





1 I M|L ; _>8-9, 37-8; Kept. Beng. Chamber Comm., 1903, 145-51; Imp. 

 L907, iii., 291-2.] 



GOSSYPIUM (Cotton); Watt, Wild and Cult. Cotton Plants of 



tin- \\'<>rl<l, 1907, 1-406, tt. 1-53. A genus of MALVACE^, the species of 



winch are widclr distributed on both sides of the equator, and in both 



hemispheres. On the north they extend, under cultivation, to Crimea 



and on the south to the latitude of the Cape of Good Hope (34). 



Few cultivated plants are so difficult to understand or have been half 

 s<> much confused through conflicting opinions regarding the existing 

 I din is as the cottons. Practically all the botanical names in current use 

 founded on cultivated plants, and these changed subsequently, and in 

 cases so rapidly that they are now mostly unrecognisable. Instead 

 of injecting a nomenclature thus hopelessly useless, one botanist after 

 another has given his peculiar views and reasserted the published names. 

 The obvious duty of establishing species on the wild forms and grouping 

 the cultivated states as near as may be possible under these, has' been 

 absolutely neglected and the literature of the genus become confusion 

 worse confounded. Useless controversies have engaged attention, such as 

 whether there are fifty or more species, or only three, or even only one in 

 the whole world ; another, whether a single characteristic of supreme value 

 can be discovered, upon which a classification of the forms might be based. 

 The early authors divided the cottons into trees and bushes, or into peren- 

 nials and annuals. It has now been established beyond dispute that all 

 species of (lossmtimit under suitable environment are perennials if left 

 alone, and may in time become large bushes or even small trees. More- 

 over, when cultivated they readily respond to environment, and when 

 necessity exists become annuals or otherwise adapt themselves. On dry 

 stony soils they are usually perennials, on rich loamy soils annuals, more 

 especially if restrained by cold in the winter months or by a heavy periodic 

 (monsoonic) rainfall or by infestations of pests. Some writers have placed 

 confidence on the characteristics of the seed as affording a key to classi- 

 fication. If possessed of a double layer of wool, viz. an under-velvet 

 or fuzz (as it has been called) and an outer layer or floss (the true wool or 

 lint), such seeds have been regarded as denoting very different plants 

 from those with a naked seed, that is to say, not possessed of the under- 

 coating (fuzz). This conception originated the classification into <ilhnnt 

 (white or fuzzy seeds) and nif/rmn (black or naked seeds). So again the 

 fact of the seeds being free from each other or attached together into what 

 has been called a " chain " or " kidney " mass, has been accepted as a 

 further means of diagnosis. But as opposed to such views it has recently 

 been shown that certain structural peculiarities have originated in conse- 

 quence of adaptation to beneficial insects, such as the kelep ant of Guate- 

 mala, or as protective measures against enemies. Of this latter kind may 

 very probably be the formation of the floss and of its special and varied 

 peculiarities. Hence another set of writers have rejected all the distinctions 

 based on the fruit or seed and have advanced the argument that selection 

 should primarily be directed to wards lowering the size and weight of the seed, 

 and thus increasing the proportion of wool. No structural manifestations 

 would accordingly be less constant than those based on the seed and floss. 

 But the colour of the fuzz and floss have been even more frequently utilised 

 as aids in classification than structural characters. The names Xankiny 



569 



D.E.P., 



iv.,1-174. 



Cotton. 



Bctattte 

 N 



HI.-. !, 



Character of 

 Seed. 



Velvet or Fuzz. 



Naked. 



Kidneyed Soodn. 



Protective 



Colour of r;,r^. 



