1077 



GORLANDITE. 



GOSSYPIUM. 



1078 



obtuse. This polype is found abundantly on the whole of the south 

 coast of England. It lives in deep water. 



G. pinnata, branched and pinnated, the branches compressed 

 polype-cells in regular rows on each margin, mammillate, unarmed 

 This species was dredged by Professor E. Forbes and Mr. M'Andrev 

 in the sound of Skye, where they found it attached to stones in 3i 

 fathoms water. 



G. placomui, irregularly branched, the branches disposed in : 

 dichotomous order and a flattish form, cylindrical, warty ; cell 

 protuberant, conical, surrounded at top by little spines. This is thi 

 Warted Sea-Fan of Ellis, and is found on the Cornish coast, but 

 is rare. 



G. ancepn, the Sea-Willow of Ellis. It is branched, sub-dichoto 

 mous ; branches with the flesh flat on each side, with a row of little 

 mouths along both the margins. This is a rare species. It was fouuc 

 originally by its describer Mr. Dale, near Margate. It is of a violel 

 colour when fresh. It is a doubtful native of our seas. 



O. ftabellum has been found on British coasts, but it has been 

 undoubtedly accidental. 



(Johnston, British Zoopkylei.) 



GORLANDITE. [LEAD.] 



GORSE. [ULEX.] 



GOSHAWK. [FALCOXID.E.] 



GOSSY'PIUM, a genus of Plants belonging to the natural order 

 Malvaceae, common to both the Old and New World, and which, from 

 the hair, or cotton, enveloping its seed being so admirably adapted 

 for weaving into cloth, is, after those affording food, one of the most 

 important groups of plants. There can be no doubt that it is indigo- 

 nous in America, as, besides the distinctness in species, specimens of 

 cotton still attached to the seeds, as well as cloth fabricated from the 

 former, have been brought by Mr. Gumming from the Peruvian 

 tombs. Some of the cloth, consisting of chequered squares of black 

 and white, very nearly resembles some modern patterns. Humboldt 

 has moreover stated that it formed the only clothing of the natives of 

 Mexico, and is one of the plants they most anciently cultivated. 

 With respect to the Old World, the almost universal use of cotton as 

 clothing in the East is well known ; and as the species, so far as ascer- 

 tained by botanists, appear to be Indian and Chinese, the historical 

 investigation is interesting as proving an early communication between 

 the civilised nations of remote antiquity. Though Rossellini incorrectly 

 states that cotton was employed as mummy-cloth, it must hav been 

 known to the ancient Egyptians, as he found some of the seed in 

 one of the monuments of Thebes. In later times, we learn from 

 Arrian that muslin was exported from India to the Arabian Gulf, 

 and from that country cotton was no doubt first made known to the 

 rest of the world. 



The Sanscrit name of the Cotton-Plant is ' karpasi,' and the Hindoo 

 ' kupas;' the cotton itself is in the latter language called 'rooi.' The 

 <__ j a interesting, as ' karpasus' occurs in the ' Periplus ' of Arrian, 



book of Esther (chap, i v. 6), is also derived ; so likewise the Latin 

 'carbasus.' Dr. Royle, in his 'Essay on the Antiquity of Hindoo 

 Medicine' (note, p. 145), infers, that as in the above passage of Esther, 

 white, green, and blue hangings fastened to pillars of marble are 

 described in the court of the garden of the king's palace ; the practice 

 appears similar to what is now adopted iu India, where calico cur- 

 tains, usually in red and white stripes, and stuffed with cotton (com- 

 monly called 'purdahs'), are employed everywhere in India, and at 

 Delhi even in the king's hall of audience. This consists of colonnades 

 of pillars supporting a light roof in the court before the private 

 apartments of the palace. On the outer rows of pillars these purdahs 

 are suspended ; hence, the author infers, we may understand the use 

 to which were applied the rows of pillars in front of the palace in the 

 ruins of Persepolis. 



Cotton was no doubt in later times cultivated and manufactured 

 into cloth. Pliny (lib. xix. c. 1) states that Upper Egypt produces 

 a small shrub which some call 'gossypion,' others ' xylon,' bearing 

 fruit like a nut, from the interior of which a kind of wool is produced, 

 from which very, white and soft cloth is manufactured. Had it been 

 common in Egypt in the time of Herodotus, it could not have 

 escaped him ; as he says specially of the Indians, that they possess a 

 kind of plant which, instead of fruit, produces wool of a finer and 

 better quality than that of sheep: of this the natives make their 

 clothes. Nearchus describes the dress of the Indians as being made 

 of flax from trees (' Library of Entertaining Knowledge,' Egypt. Autiq., 

 ii p 125). Theophrastus (lib. iv. c. 9) clearly describes the cotton 

 with leaves like the vine as being abundant iu the Island of Tylos in 

 the Persian Gulf. Heercn, in his work on the ' Commerce of the 

 Ancients ' comes to the conclusion that these plantations of cotton in 

 the Island of Tylos were the result of the commerce with India, the 

 true country of the cotton. The inferences from these quotations of 

 the original introduction of cotton from India into Egypt are in some 

 measure confirmed by there being no species of Gostypium indigenous 

 and peculiar to the latter country. In conclusion, it is necessary to 

 refer to the facility with which cotton is distinguished from linen to 

 controvert the assertion of Rossellini that it was always employed 



for mummy-cloth ; as the result of numerous observations by Bauer, 

 &c., with the most powerful microscopes of modern times, and every 

 variety of mummy-cloth, has proved that it is invariably composed of 

 linen, and not of cotton cloth. The one fibre is easily distinguished 

 from the other; that of cotton having a flat tape or riband-like 

 appearance, while the fibre of the linen has a round tubular and 

 even-jointed structure. (Egypt. Antiq., 'Library of Entertaining 

 Knowledge,' vol. ii. p. 182.) 



The genus Gossypium is characterised by having a double calyx, 

 of which the inner is cup-shaped, obtusely 5-toothed, the outer or 

 involucre tripartite, with the leaflets united at the baae, cordate, with 

 the margins irregularly cut. Stigmas, 3-5. Capsules, 3- or 5-celled, 

 many-seeded. Seeds clothed with wool-like hairs, or cotton. 



The species of Gossypiurn, occupy naturally a belt probably 

 exceeding the torrid zone in breadth, but in a cultivated state we 

 have cotton now extending on one hand to the south of Europe, and 

 Lower Virginia and even Maryland iu the United States of America ; 

 while on the other we have it as far south as the Cape of Good Hope, 

 and in America to the southern parts of Brazil. Within these limits 

 it may also be seen cultivated at considerable elevations. Baron 

 Humboldt mentions having seen it even at 9000 feet of elevation in the 

 Equinoctial Andes, and in Mexico at 5500 feet. Dr. Royle states that it 

 is cultivated in small quantities at 4000 feet of elevation in 30 N. lat. 

 in the Himalayas. The localities suited for the production of cotton 

 depend as much upon the climate as the soil, and also upon the specific 

 peculiarities of the different kinds of cotton plants. That the pro- 

 duction of cotton is so much influenced by external circumstances is 

 not more remarkable than in many other cultivated plants ; indeed, 

 we might expect it to be more so from the susceptibility of this hairy 

 development to the influence of situation. Humboldt has remarked 

 that G. Sarbadense, G. Itirsutum, and G. religiosum flourish in a climate 

 where the mean annual temperature is from 82 to 68 ; but that 

 G. Itcrbaceum is successfully cultivated where, the summer heat being 

 75 or 73, that of winter is not less than 46 or 48. The cultivation 

 of this cotton however does not depend so much on winter cold as on 

 sufficient length of suitable summer heat. The thermometer iu 

 Upper Virginia is sometimes as low as zero of Fahrenheit in winter, 

 and yet cotton can be cultivated during the long summer. 



It is remarkable that a genus so important for its product, and so 

 long known, and with comparatively so small a number of species, 

 should yet have these undetermined. The celebrated De Candolle 

 states, that no genus more urgently requires the labours of a mono- 

 graph from a careful botanist who could have the opportunity of 

 seeing the species in a living state. The confusion has in a great 

 measure proceeded from botanists absurdly neglecting the cultivated 

 in their search for new species ; and cultivators being incompetent or 

 unwilling to distinguish varieties from species, frequently raising the 

 former to the rank of the latter, because the produce, in which alone 

 they are interested, happened to be more or less valuable. In the 

 proceedings of the East Indian Committee there is an interesting 

 .etter from Mr. Spalding, where he informs us that the American 

 cultivators confine their attention to such plants as are of annual 

 growth. 1st. The Nankeen Cotton, introduced at an early period. 

 This is abundant in produce ; the seed covered with down, the wool 

 of a dirty yellow colour, and usually low priced. 2nd. The Green- 

 Seed Cotton with white wool, which, with the former, is grown in the 

 middle and upland districts, whence the latter is called Upland 

 Jotton, also Short Staple Cotton, and, from the mode in which it was 

 cleaned, Bowed Georgia Cotton. 3rd. The Sea-Island or Long Staple 

 Cotton, which is distinguished by the black colour of its seed, and 

 )y the fine, white, strong, and silky long staple by which it is sur- 

 rounded. This is grown in the lower parts of Georgia and South 

 Carolina, near the sea, and on several small islands which are not 

 very distant from the shore. 



The species admitted by botanists are not yet clearly determined. 

 . De Candolle admits 13 species, and notices others. Two have 

 since been described by Dr. Roxburgh, one by Rocusch, and another 

 n the ' Flora de Senegambie.' Of varieties Mr. Bennett says he knows 

 more than one hundred kinds, and that they appeared to him never- 

 mding. Dr. Royle, the most recent author who has treated expressly 

 if the species, admits eight species, in which are absorbed some of 

 3e Candolle's; while others are avowedly unnoticed for want of 

 materials for satisfactory determination. But from his own observa- 

 .ions, Dr. Roxburgh's 'Flora Indica,' as well as from Swartz, 'Observ. 

 Jot.' for the West Indies, and the specimens, though few, in the 

 iritish Museum, it is probable that several of the cultivated species 

 are correctly determined. 



G. herbacewn (Linn.), which is herbaceous in temperate, and 

 isually with bi-trienuial stems 4-6 feet high in tropical countries, is 

 o doubt the Xylon s. G. antiqttorum, and includes also the G. Indicum 

 f Lamarck, which would indeed be the preferrible name for this 

 pecies. The younger parts of the stem, as well as the flower- and 

 eaf-stalks, hairy and marked with black spots. Leaves hairy, palmate, 

 - (generally) 5-lobed, lobes broad and rounded with a little point, or 

 n the woody varieties sub-lanceolate and acute. Stipules falcate, 

 anceolate. Flowers of a lively yellow colour, with a purple spot 

 tear the claw. Segments of exterior calyx dentate, sometimes 

 ntire. Capsules ovate, pointed, 3- or 4-celled. Seeds free, clothed 



