52 COTTON IN EGYPT AND THE SUDAN. 



there. Superior kinds of cotton can be grown here as summer, 

 autumn, and winter crops. 



Still further southward, in the district of Gondokoro on the 

 White Nile, the climate is exactly the contrary to that of Europe and 

 Egypt. January is the hottest month of the year, and at the 

 same time the driest, and therefore the most favourable time for 

 the picking of cotton. South of Gondokoro regular irrigation 

 ceases. On the banks of the Nile one may indeed meet with small 

 cotton plantations, for instance, near Nimule and Masindi, but on 

 the whole the cultivation is of no importance here, and the result 

 of the crops depends entirely upon the amount of rainfall. 



THE EGYPTIAN KINDS OF COTTON. 



Egyptian cotton, in Arabic called " El Kotn," comprises, 

 to-day, over 100 varieties, and these show, perhaps, botanically, 

 considerable conformity, but the opinions differ widely to which 

 species and origin the original kind or kinds must be attributed, and 

 as to how far the imported American kinds, sent to Egypt in the 19th 

 century, affected the kinds in existence at that time in Egypt and 

 the Sudan. The botanical history of the Egyptian cotton is not at 

 all clear ; exact ancient accounts are rare, and the existing pressed 

 plants in herbariums are, until relatively recent times, so 

 few and incomplete that not even the exact nature of the 

 original "Jumel" cotton of 1820 can be traced by it. 

 As far as one can form an idea from the reports beginning with 

 the 16th century, cotton of the Asiatic type (G. herbaceum and 

 nanking) was grown as an annual and as a perennial. Already in 

 1640 a perennial cotton of a similar type to the peruvian G. 

 vitifolium, with a rough brown fibre was grown. The descriptions 

 existing from those times might also have reference to " Hindi." 

 The description of the French expedition given in 1800 does not 

 enlighten us as to the three different kinds of cotton found in 

 Egypt. The "Jumel" cotton, whose lint is brown, long, and strong, 

 and whose fibres are easily removed from the naked seed, was probably 

 a G. vitifolium, and through its hybridisation with the Sea Island 

 and Brazilian cotton, introduced in the first half of the 19th century, 

 the present species have arisen. The introduction of Sea Island 

 cotton into Egypt lasted from 1822 to 1860, or even later, that of 

 the Brazilian seed from 1827, or 1828, to 1865. Doubtless, there 

 is a near relationship between most of the Egyptian kinds and 

 Gossypium barbadense, the original Sea Island cotton ; some, especi- 

 ally several of the white Egyptian kinds, are attributed to Gossypium 

 peruvianum ; Gossypium herbaceum and hirsutum are also repre- 

 sented, and in Senaar and in the Upper Nile district the red flower- 

 ing Gossypium arboreum is found in a wild state. 



Local differences of the growing conditions and numerous cross- 

 ings between indigenous, Asiatic, Sea Island, Brazilian, and Peru- 

 vian species have given quite a number of valuable varieties, which 

 all possess distinctive advantages as regards fineness, length of 



\ staple, gloss strength, and excellent spinning qualities of the fibre. 



V But of the several kinds which have gradually been formed in Egypt 



