SEA ISLAND AND BRAZILIAN 



OOSSYPIUM 



BRASILIBNSE 



Brazilian 



M a name for a species presumed by many t<* oxUt, but known for certain to no 

 niter. The species founded by Linmeus may bo said to turn on a 



ill pn-siTM-l in t!i Hritish .MIIS.MHII, un<l that specimen certainly 

 agrees ly with t-. rinfuiinm. /am*., than with the modern Bea bland 



\iiii-rioa. 



Although r.-|MMtc.ll\ introduced into India, Sea Island Cotton has, in no 

 .1 success. It is possible, however, that it might be raised pro- 

 >n the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and in some parts of Tenamerim. 



G. brasiliense, Mac/., FL Jam., 1837, i., 72 ; Watt., I.e. 295-315, 

 it. 10,50 ; Bambagia, arborea di Pernambuco, Zanoni, Istoria Bot., 1675, 

 1. 1. 16 ; G. religiosum, Lamk., Cav., Willd., Parl. and others, non Linn. ; 

 uninatum, Roxb., FL Ind., 1832, iii., 186 and MS. drawing n. 1598 

 oiiiily named G. vitifolium), etc., etc. 



Tin- chain. Kidney, Brazilian, Bahia, Fernarabuco and Costa Rica Cottons 

 of most popular writers, and in Burma it is thembanwa (ship's cotton). It was 

 i. tinitoly alluded to by John Lerius, who lived in Brazil in 1557, and wrote 

 ;t history of that country. Sir Walter Elliot, speaking of the plant as known to 

 him in South India, calls it paidi (gold) patti&nd pamidi patti (the wealth-giving), 

 ,es that denote the high expectations that were at one time entertained 

 >garding this plant. It was apparently the first of the long-staple silky 

 cottons of the New World to attract attention. Seeds were conveyed by 

 rrpraf and others, and the chain condition so well figured by Zanoni 

 to have been accepted as a peculiarity of all cottons, hence Lobel(1576) 

 icught the improved on the pictures of '. /i-i-h'-nn. given thirty years 

 ireviously by Fuchsius and Matthiolus, by adding a kidneyed mass of seven 



D.E.P., 

 iv., 29-6. 

 Kidney 

 Cotton. 



Introduction to 

 India. 



Wide 

 Distribution. 



All the nations of the world seem for a time to have vied with each other 

 in the attempt to acclimatise the Brazilian Cotton, and in each new country to 

 which taken it obtained the name of the region from whence immediately con- 

 veyed ; accordingly in Burma, and also in the Antilles, it is called " Siam Cotton," 

 and in India " Ava Cotton," etc. Roxburgh tells us in the MS. edition of his 

 Fl-ora Indica (preserved in Kew) that he became acquainted with it through seed 

 sent him from Farukhabad. Mr. H. St. George Tucker (Member of the Court 

 of Directors of the East India Company) observes that Lady Hastings grew it 

 at Fatteghar, and Roger Hunt, in 1808, addressed the East India Company 

 on the causes of deterioration of Pernambuco and Surinam Cottons. Thus 

 we know that prior to Roxburgh's knowledge of it this plant had been experi- 

 mentally tried in many parts of India. 



It is, therefore, perhaps not to be wondered at that this cotton lias got con- 

 siderably more widely distributed and is moreover more frequently met with in 

 states of acclimatisation than is the case with any of the other New World cottons. 

 Its large capsule, compact mass of seeds and the copious coating of floss naturally 

 conveyed the impression of great value, and false expectations were raised, only 

 to be rudely dispelled by comparisons of yield to acre. Gradually, however, all 

 interest (or nearly so) in this particular Brazilian Cotton died out with the appear- 

 ance first of the Upland Georgian Cottons, then the Mexican Cottons, and finally 

 the Sea Island Cottons, all races that could be raised as annuals and occupy the 

 soil for short periods. The present species in most countries accordingly fell 

 into a state of complete neglect and either disappeared or survived as an escape 

 from cultivation and became " the wild tree cotton " of most popular writers, the 

 properties of which have been the will-o'-the-wisp of nearly each decade for the 



I past century in the world's cotton areas. 

 If I am correct in believing that this plant, however, represents an important 

 stage in the development of the fine long staples of the West Indies and the Sea EipecUtion*. 

 Islands of America, it is not by any means devoid of interest to persons interested 



I in the production of new and improved races. But as met with in India to-day 

 it is of no value whatever, and the expectations recently advanced regarding it 

 would accordingly seem almost for certain doomed to disappointment, since op- 

 posed to all past experience with the plant. It may be said to have attained 

 commercial importance within very restricted areas. In South America its 

 indigenous habitat it is regarded as of special value because of its resistance of 

 the diseases that prove disastrous to other cottons. In Guatemala, for example, 

 it is believed to be immune from weevil. 



iiro.it 



