TREE VERSUS BUSHY COTTON 





GOSSYPIUIYI 

 VAR. NEOLECTA 



Bengal Cotton 



form (which may be called the typical condition) can hardly be said to b culti- 



is a sourco of fibre to-day, though according to Indian tradition it u the 



OOttoo thai should he selected in preparing tho Brahmanical strinj.', and hag 



!!!! hem ailinned was also the cotton specially used by the Egyptian priest* 



in tho construction of thoir robes. Many of the Arab writers speak of its fibre 



us spun and woven. The classic records of a " tree-cotton " carry us many 



cmiurios beyond the first mention of a herbaceous field crop, and what is 



!! curious still, moat of the early writers on Indian cottons, such as 



Kh.-cdf, IVn-y, Kumphius, etc., describe and figure "tree-cottons" (from 



admitted personal knowledge), but say absolutely nothing about herbaceous 



cms. 



Cultivated Form*. I regard this species as embracing several fairly distinct ColttTtted 

 is, some of which at least have been assigned independent positions by FonM - 

 .-i-tain authors. But while in these a natural assemblage of characteristics is 

 preserved, hardly any one feature is constant. Thus, for example, the flowers 

 may !><> yellow, the leaves may be very considerably hairy, and the velvet of the 

 -.(!- may be grey or brown. The more arboreous form occurs chiefly (so far 

 a.s India is concerned) as an ornamental garden plant. When grown as a field 

 crop * hoi-rum may be either an annual or perennial, and in the latter case 

 rally sown in rows, being thus employed to shade more delicate annual 

 i - or other plants. Moreover, the agricultural forms are so much modified, 

 very possibly by hybridisation, that they cannot be regarded as constituting 

 varieties in fact, many of them are but climatic sports that lose their properties Climatic Sport*, 

 on hoing carried from one region to another. It may be accepted, accordingly, 

 that in India at least the cultivation of <. i /< nm is quite as ancient, if not 

 more ancient, than that of any other cotton. Some of the Indian races referable 

 to this species (primarily) may be regarded as having derived from *'. <n-i>o->i 

 the soft silky character of their flosses, while the length and strength of their 

 staples have come from the other ancestral elements. In others a strain from 

 *.. m-imi-eiitn would seem to have been sought on account of the strength thus 

 imparted to withstand seasonal climatic changes the plant for the most part 

 becoming a hardy perennial. 



There are many cultivated states of this species found all over India, Egypt 

 and Africa. As already explained, these manifest a constant tendency to throw 

 back towards the arborescent condition with dark purple flowers, whenever they 

 are allowed to become perennial or to be naturalised. The following are some 

 of the more remarkable varieties or cultivated races of this species : 



Var. sanguinea, Watt, I.e. 91-5, t. 9; 0. sangtiineum, Hassk., Cat. Hort. 

 Bog., 200; Todaro, Relaz. Cult, dei Cot., 1877-8, 179, t. 1. This form is rarely met 

 with in India, though frequent in Africa. A red-flowered herbaceous field cotton 

 was, however, at one time common in India, and is occasionally still met with in 

 Oudh. Buchanan-Hamilton, who gave special attention to thesubjectof thelndian 

 cottons, did not apparently preserve a specimen of <*. arborvtim proper in his 

 herbarium. Sets of his plants are to be seen in the Kew, the British Museum, 

 the Wallichian and more especially in the Edinburgh herbaria, and among these 

 may be discovered admirable samples of a red-flowered herbaceous plant which 

 botanically is derived almost immediately from . -borf HIM, with possibly 

 a strain of . .vi/.-*ng. Of that plant Buchanan-Hamilton has recorded the 

 following observation : " No. 1549, O. nigrum, vide Comment, meum in Hort. 

 Mai. p. primam. var. (a) rubicundum ; Q. indicum, Willd., Sp. PL, iii., 803 ? 

 Colitur ubique in India vulgatisaima." Now if the plant shown by that specimen 

 was cultivated everywhere in India and very common in 1808, it must, I fear, 

 be spoken of as very nearly unknown to-day and its place taken by a multitude 

 of forms of yellow-flowered plants considerably more remote from . a &<>< nm. 

 Linn. Of these may be mentioned : 



Var. neglecta, Watt, I.e. 95-108, tt. 10-12 ; O. ntglectum, Tod., Relaz. Cult, 

 dei Cot., 1877, 169-75 ; Cudu Pariti (Alcea Malabarensis), Rheede, Hort. Mai., 

 1686, i., 55, t. 31 ; O. herbaceum, Roxb., Fl. Ind., iii., 184 ; also Dacca Cotton 

 .UN., plate in Kew; Q. virideecens, Buch.-Ham. MS. ; O. herbaceum. Maxwell 

 Masters, Fl. Br. Ind., i., 346 (in part) ; O. herbaceum, Duthie <fc Fuller, Field and 

 Garden Crops, 1882, i., 75-8, t. 18 ; O. arboreum, Engler <k Prantl, Pflanzenfam., 

 1895, iii., No. 6, 52, f. 25 (after Parl) ; O. neglectum, Subbiah, Rutt. Dept. Agri. 

 U.Prov., 1901, No. 15, 26, t. 1. Bengal Cotton, belati-, vilayati-Khandesh, kateli, 

 mathi, jari, etc., etc., and is the okra of American writers. 



Habitat. A large pyramidal bush, chiefly grown as a field crop. Cultivated 



577 37 



Red- 



flowered 



Cotton. 



Bengal 

 Cotton. 



