SURFACE FIBERS 



225 



Fig. 214. — Upland Cotton {Gossypium herbaceum, Mallow Family, Malva- 

 ceae). Plant in flower and fruit. (Baillon.) — An annual in cultivation, 

 growing 1-2 m. tall; leaves downy; flowers yellow; fruit dry; seed 

 brown. Native home, probably India. 



part of the inner bark of stems; (3) woody fibers, composed 

 entirely of wood; (4) mixed fibers, containing both woody 

 and bast-hke fibers; and (5) pseudo-fibers, which consist 

 either of entire plants or of parts lacking both wood and 

 bast. 



67. Surface fibers occur upon stems, leaves, fruit, and 

 seeds. The only one of much economic importance is cotton. 

 This forms the woolly covering of the seeds of several species, 

 principally the upland cotton (Figs. 214, 215) and the Sea 

 Island cotton (Fig. 216). The former is the chief fiber plant 

 of the world. To-day it is cultivated throughout the tropics 

 and very generally in subtropical regions. The southern 

 United States produce more than all the rest of the world. 

 Two thousand six hundred years ago it was raised in India 



