THE COTTON PLANT 



GOSSYPIUM 



PBRUVIANUM 



Egyptian Cotton 



adheres very firmly, hence necessitating the use of saw-gins, but it is fairly long 

 and silky. 



As met with in India, the plant has degenerated very greatly from the stan- 

 dard preserved in the United States and in Egypt has, in fact, approached in 

 many directions to the specific conditions of a. itmn-tatnnt, although I am not 

 aware of its ever having been recorded as met with as an escape from cultivation. 

 Had systematic selection of stock been pursued in India, there is little doubt 

 that a higher standard than exists might have been maintained, if not a pro- 

 gression secured. Of this there can be no doubt, that the Upland Cottons of 

 America have advanced until the plant that now affords them is no longer o. 

 iiii-Nntiiiii. but a greatly improved stock that botanically might be described 

 as a hybrid between a. Jiirtmtuni and f. inexicaniun. 



Religious Var. religiosa, Watt, I.e. 201-4, tt. 32, 33 ; G. religiosum, Linn., Syst. 



Cotton. Nat., 1767, ii., 462 (in part) ; G. religiosum, Linn. Herb. ; G. tricuspidatum, Lamk., 



EncycL, ii., 135 ; G. croceum, Ham., Trans. Linn. Soc., 1822, xiii., 491-4 ; G. 

 religiosum, Roxb., Fl. Ind., 1832, hi., 185-6, but MS. drawing n. 1497 is nam 

 G. fuscum. 



This somewhat remarkable plant is mentioned here mainly in order to allo 

 of its separation from ?. bwiiiieiise (which by Parlatore and others has been 

 incorrectly called tf. religiotrum.). It is not of much importance commercially 

 as its separation from <*. Mrnuttim. is a matter of great difficulty, and, more- 

 over, the plant does not appear to be very extensively cultivated. It is best 

 distinguished from the normal condition of saw-ginned Dharwar cotton by 

 its trailing habit and more softly hairy condition. The lateral shoots are 

 much elongated and slender and the internodes are long, straight and profusely 

 tomentose. It is not uncommon to find popular writers in India affirming that 

 the name reiigiomini: was given to denote a cotton cultivated by mendicants 

 or one met with near temples. The name was first used by Linnaeus, and there 

 is no proof whatever that his specimen came from India. Moreover, the plant 

 that in India might deserve the name rellgloatim, would be the deo kdpas or 

 ram-kdpas, which is *?. arborenm. Roxburgh was the first botanist who 

 critically studied the plant, and he came to the very correct conclusion that it 

 could " scarcely be more than a variety of iiii'tintum." 



Red G. micpocarpum, Tod., Hort. Bot. Pan., 1876, i., 63, t. 14 ; Watt, 



Peruvian. I.e. 210-3, t. 36 ; Nigro Cotton, Labat, Nouv. Eel. de VAfrique Occ., 1728, 

 iii., 262-9, t. 261. 



A remarkable plant met with now and again throughout the cotton areas, 

 more especially in Africa, though the type was described from a plant raised 

 (so Todaro says) from seed procured from Mexico. Its leaves are even more 

 deeply palmisected the lobes being almost linear than is the case with . 

 tn-tiniiiciim-. but they are in addition pilose-tomentose, while the seeds are semi- 

 conglomerated and partially coated with a velvet. One of the most striking 

 peculiarities of this plant is the immense size of the calyx. By most writers 

 this has been confused with kidney cotton (ct. 6-*iiiene), but others call it 

 the true Pernambuco cotton of commerce, which they hold to be thus distinct 

 from the kidney cotton. By still others it is the original stock of the ashmouni 

 cotton of Egypt, an opinion which I do not accept. Perhaps its best popular 

 name is Red Peruvian. 





D.E.P., 

 iv., 20-1. 

 Peruvian 

 and 



Egyptian. 



G. pepuvianum, Cav., Diss., 1785-90, 313, t. 168 ; G. vitifolium, 

 Roxb., FL Ind., iii., 186 ; ? G. religiosum, Parl. (in part, but non Linn.) ; 

 G. hirsutum, Cook, Weevil Resist. Adapt, of Cot. PL ; Watt, I.e. 213-26, 

 tt. 37, 38. U.8. Dept. Agri. PL Indust. Bull, 1906, No. 88, 8. Possibly 

 indigenous to Central and South America ; is the so-called Peruvian 

 Cotton now met with in most cotton-growing countries, especially West 

 Africa, where it received numerous distinctive local names, such as owu 

 of Abbeokuta and ukoko of the Congo ; and most of the races of ordinary 

 or short-staple Egyptians, such as the Ashmouni, Mit Afifi, Zafiri and 

 Abassi. 



This somewhat obscure species links together G. meaetcanww. and 6?. !*- 

 Hens?. It has the palmisected foliage of the latter with the blistering habit 

 of twigs and fuzz-coated seeds of the former. It is somewhat significant that 



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