PLANTS CULTIVATED FOR THEIR SEEDS. 405 



into a single locality in Greece, for instance. It was 

 afterwards propagated on the shores of the Mediterranean 

 by the Arabs, as we see from the name qutn or kutn, 1 

 which has passed into the modern languages of the south 

 of Europe as cotone, colon, algodon. Eben el A wan, of 

 Seville, who lived in the twelfth century, describes its 

 cultivation as it was practised in his time in Sicily, 

 Spain, and the East. 2 



Gossypium herbaceum is the species most cultivated 

 in the United States. 3 It was probably introduced 

 there from Europe. It was a new cultivation a hundred 

 years ago, for a bale of North American cotton was 

 confiscated at Liverpool in 1774, on the plea that the 

 cotton-plant did not grow there. 4 The silky cotton (sea 

 island) is another species, American, of which I shall 

 presently speak. 



Tree-Cotton Gossypium arboreum, Linnaeus. 



This species is taller and of longer duration than the 

 herbaceous cotton; the lobes of the leaf are narrower, 

 the bracts less divided or entire. The flower is usually 

 pink, with a red centre. The cotton is always white. 



According to Anglo-Indian botanists, this is not, as 

 it was supposed, an Indian species, and is even rarely 

 cultivated in India. It is a native of tropical Africa. 

 It has been seen wild in Upper Guinea, in Abyssinia, 

 Sennaar, and Upper Egypt. 5 So great a number of 

 collectors have brought it from these countries, that 

 there is no room for doubt; but cultivation has so diffused 

 and mixed this species with others that it has been 

 described under several names in works on Southern 

 Asia. 



1 It is impossible not to remark the resemblance between this name 

 and that of flax in Arabic, kattan or kittan; it is an example of the con- 

 fusion which takes place in names where there is an analogy between 

 the products. 



2 De Lasteyrie, Du Cotonnier, p. 290. 



3 Torrey and Asa Gray, Flora of North America, i. p. 230 ; Darling- 

 ton, Agricultural Botany, p. 16. 



4 Schouw, Naturschilderungen, p. 152. 



5 Masters, in Oliver, Fl. Trop. Afr., i. p. 211 ; Hooker, Fl. of Brit. Ind., 

 i. p. 347; Schweinfurth and ^Ascherson, Aufzahlung, p. 265 (under ths 

 name Gossypium nigrum) j Parlatore, Specie dei Cotoni, p. 25. 



