

ghat 

 Cotton. 



Local 



GOSSYPIUM 



OOMRAS AND HINGANGHATS VAR.ROJI 



Baroda Perennial 



stly grown on red sandy or stony soils, very rarely on black soils. They 

 : th in- i part perennials, and as such attain a height of to 8 feet ; 

 .i.niiui/iy largely cultivated as mixed crops, being grown in rows 

 through tin- Holds or as hedges to protect other crops. 



Var. Banl, Watt. I.e. 131-4 ; Middleton, I.e. pi. iii. ; (). herbaccum, var. Jethi, D.E.P., 

 Oammie, I.e. 4, pi. iv. This affords the finest and most silky qualities of the iv., 88,129. 



>ns known in trade as the Oomrat (Amraoti), the Hingfinghata, the Hingan- 

 Nagpurs and Bihars. Under each of these there are usually two grades, 

 the l>nni and the Jan. Tho former grows on the higher and drier soils, 

 illy nf tlio southern districts ; gives a fine silky floss but low yield. The 

 latter is raised on the lower black soils of the northern districts ; gives an in- 

 staple of a woolly character but does so very profusely. Jari seems 

 originally to luivo been simply a lower quality of bani, and produced possibly 

 rowing it with uar. nrgirctii ; nowadays it is pure nfuirrtn. To the 

 ciivumstaneo of ni being one of the races of the Chinese cotton plant is due 

 its silky staple. The description of the shape of the leaves and colour of the 

 llo\\ trs of this special form is almost precisely that given for xattatn, except that 

 the leaves in the finest grades of bani are much larger, thinner in texture, more 

 undulated and much more hairy. The bracteoles are usually very lurge purple 

 ml in-. ! with a few long pointed teeth. 



It is met with over a wide area, bears numerous distinctive names, and 

 manifests a considerable range in quality of staple. It mingles with the .vnrfom 

 cottons of the south and east, with the Hajl of the west, and with the i>im- 

 i,ii/<iiiti cottons of the north. It is known in Bihar as jethi or desi (deshUa) ; 

 in Bengal proper it is bhoglla ; in Berar it has numerous synonyms such 

 as tidki, judi ; in Hyderabad one of the best forms is that produced at 

 Bhainsi ; in Southern Kathiawar it seems also to be known by the names 

 of mathio, tiffina, gangri, etc. It occurs in Berar, the Central Provinces, 

 Bihar and the drier tracts of Bengal. It is essentially the best cotton met 

 with on all the dry soils that have to be classed as second best in cotton- 

 production. 



Var. Roji, Watt, I.e. 134-7. A perennial, bushy, yellow-flowered, cultivated 

 cotton that might be described as specially prevalent in Baroda and Khaira. 

 It is a toll much-branched shrub, often climbing in hedges 6 to 8 feet with 

 straight ascending branches. When left to grow in the hedgerows roji becomes 

 subscandent, the wool shortens and turns rufous-coloured, and the fuzz lengthens 

 and becomes also red-coloured. If allowed to remain in the fields for more than 

 three or four seasons the wool degenerates in quality and, as stated by the early 

 authors, is then fit for upholstery purposes only. But Middleton observes, "Roji 

 is markedly different from the annual cottons and does not seem to hybridise 

 with them." 



One of the earliest and perhaps the most interesting direct allusions to this 

 cotton is that given by the Rev. E. Terry, who accompanied Sir Thomas Roe's 

 Embassy to India (Voy. E. Ind., 1615, 368). Speaking of the neighbourhood of 

 Surat, he says : " For their Cotton-wooll, they sow seed, and very large quantities 

 of Ground in East-India are thus seeded. It grows up like small Rose-bushes 

 and then puts forth many yellow blossoms. . . . Amongst that Wool they find 

 seeds to sow again as they have occasion ; but those shrubs bear that Wool three 

 or four years ere they supplant them. Of this Cotton-wool they make divers 

 sorts of white Cloth." This recalls at once the description of Indian cotton 

 given by Theophrastus (see p. 571). 



There is only one perennial cotton with yellow blossoms in Gujarat, and 

 accordingly it seems safe to assume it was the plant to which Terry referred. 

 Here, then, we have another indication that the perennial cottons were once 

 upon a time more largely cultivated than they are to-day, if we are not justified 

 in believing that the perennial cottons were the early condition, the annual plant 

 a later product of greater skill in cultivation. Hove (170 years after Terry's 

 time) repeatedly alludes to perennial cotton seen by him both red and yellow 

 flowered but he also gives a full account of the cultivation of the annual plant, 

 and devotes special attention to what he calls a new method recently introduced. 

 This may possibly point to the extended cultivation of the annual crop. But by 

 the date of Hove's visit the roji cotton hod been assigned the secondary 

 position which it has since held. Hove's actual specimens are in the British change In 

 Museum, and it has to be admitted that they could not be separated botanically Indian 

 from any corresponding set of more recent date. But he has no sample of what 



581 



Roji. 



Early 

 Records. 



Btooki 



