COS 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



GO S 



633 



tic-lanceolate, tooth awned ; calices peduncled, ciliate-seta- 

 ceous. Stems diffused, simple, white, tomentose ; peduncle 

 terminating, very long, leafless, putting off a white nap, one- 

 flowered. The outer order of leaflets in the calix is of the 

 same form with the leaves ; the inner is coloured, more copi- 

 ous, narrower, and ends in abundance of bristles, that are 

 twice as long as the flower. Native of the Cape. 



Gorz. See Ulex. 



Gossypium; a genus of the class Monadelphia. order Poly- 

 andria. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix : perianth double ; 

 outer one- leafed, trificl, flat, larger; inner one-leafed, bluntly 

 emarginate, in five rows, cup-form. Corolla : petals five, 

 obcordate, flat, spreading, fastened by their base to the tube 

 of the stamina. Stamina : filamenta numerous, uniting at 

 bottom into a tube, separate at, and below the tip, lax, in- 

 serted into the corolla ; antherce kidney-form. Pistil: ger- 

 men roundish; style columnar, the length of tlie stamina; 

 stigmas three or four, thickish. Pericarp: capsule roundish, 

 acuminate, three or four-celled; partitions contrary. Seeds : 

 very many, oval, involved in cotton. ESSENTIAL CHARAC- 

 TER. Calix: double; outer trifid. Capsule: four-celled. 

 Seeds : wrapped in cottou. All the species of cotton plants 

 are very tender, and will not endure the open air in England. 

 The species are, 



1. Gossypium Herbaceum ; Common Cotton. Leaves 

 five-lobed, without glands underneath; stem herbaceous. 

 Root tapering, woody, with numerous fibres, annual ; seed- 

 lobes two, kidney-form, terminating gradually in a long pe- 

 tiole, with the figure of a halved funnel. Stem three feet 

 high, upright, round, pubescent, as is the whole of the herb, 

 at the bottom brown, with light chinks at the top spotted with 

 black; branches axillary, scarcely longer than the leaf at 

 their origin ; leaves alternate, only half the length of the 

 petiole, tomentose, odorous when young ; calix outer, when 

 closed three-cornered, when open, three-parted almost to 

 the base; segments heart-shaped, gashed, shorter by half 

 than the corolla, dotted with black ; inner cylindrical, only 

 one-third of the other's length, upright, five-parted, with 

 short blunt segments, dotted like the inner; corolla mono- 

 petalous, with a very short tube, and a five-parted spreading 

 border ; the segments bluut, crenate at the side, pale yellow, 

 with five red spots at bottom, and deciduous; filamenta co- 

 alescing into a pyramid ; gennen superior, ovate ; style fili- 

 form ; stigma four-fold ; capsule bluntly three-cornered, 

 three-valved, three-celled ; seeds ovate, about three in each 

 cell, convex on one side, more flat on the other, immersed in 

 fine cotton. This is the common Levant cotton, which is 

 cultivated also in several islands of the Archipelago ; and in 

 Malta, Sicily, and the kingdom of Naples ; as well as in most 

 parts of Asia. Few plants are more useful, since it furnishes 

 materials for clothing in the four quarters of the world, parti- 

 cularly to the Asiatics. The seeds also are an article of food, 

 and esteemed wholesome. Propagation and Culture. Both 

 this and the third species will ripen their seeds in England, 

 if they be sown upon a good hot-bed early in the spring. 

 When the plants come up, they must be removed into sepa- 

 rate pots, and plunged into the bark-bed to bring them for- 

 ward: when they are too tall to remain under the frames, re- 

 move them into the tan-bed in the stove; and when the roots 

 have filled the pots, remove them into larger. With this 

 management, the flowers will appear in July, and the seeds 

 ripen towards the end of September. Cotton is propagated 

 in the West Indies by the seed, which is set in rows, about five 

 feet asunder, at the end of September, or beginning of Octo- 

 ber; at first but slightly covered; but after it is grown up, 

 the root is well moulded. The seed is subject to decay 

 VOL. i. 53. 



when it is set too deep, especially in wet weather. The soil 

 should not be stiff, nor shallow, because this plant has a tap- 

 root. The ground is hoed frequently, and kept very clean 

 about the young plants, until they rise to a moderate height, 

 otherwise they are liable to be destroyed by caterpillars. It 

 grows from four to six feet high, and produces two crops 

 annually; the first in eight months from the time of sowing 

 the seed; the second within four months after the first; and 

 the produce of each plant is reckoned about one pound 

 weight. The branches are pruned or trimmed after the first 

 gathering; and if the growth be over luxuriant, this should 

 be done sooner. When great part of the pods are expanded, 

 the wool is picked, and afterwards cleared from the seeds by 

 a machine, called a gin, composed of two or three smooth 

 wooden rollers, of about one inch diameter, ranged horizon- 

 tally, close, and parallel to each other, in a frame ; at each 

 extremity, they are toothed or channelled longitudinally, cor^ 

 responding one with the other; and the central roller being 

 moved with a treadle or foot-lath, resembling that of a knife- 

 grinder, makes the other two revolve in contrary directions. 

 The cotton is laid, in small quantities at a time, upon these 

 rollers, whilst they are in motion; and readily passing between 

 them, drops into a sack, placed underneath to receive it, 

 leaving the seeds, which are too large to pass with it, behind. 

 Thecotton.thusdischarged from the seeds, is afterwards hand- 

 picked, and cleansed thoroughly from any little particles of 

 the pods or other substances, which may be adhering to it. 

 It is then stowed in large bags, where it is well trod down, 

 that it may lie close and compact; and the better to answer 

 this purpose, some water is every now and then sprinkled 

 upon the outside of the bag; the marketable weight of which 

 is usually three hundred pounds. An acre may be expected 

 to produce from two hundred and forty pounds, to that 

 quantity ; or two hundred and seventy pounds on an aver- 

 age. The shrub cotton will rise from seeds very easily, if 

 sown on a good hot-bed early in the spring ; if they be brought 

 forward in the same manner as directed for the others, the 

 plants will be five or six feet high in the same summer; but 

 it is difficult to preserve them through the, winter, unless 

 they are hardened gradually during the warm weather; for 

 when they are forced on at that time, they will become so 

 tender, as to be incapable of resisting the least injury. In 

 autumn, they must be placed in the bark-stove, and kept in 

 the first class of heat, otherwise they will not live through 

 the winter in England. 



2. Gossypium Arboreum ; Tree Cotton. Leaves palmate, 

 with lanceolate lobes ; stem shrubby, eight feet high, the 

 thickness of the human leg, with a rugged brown bark, and 

 long, diffused, twisted branches ; flowers entirely yellow, ter- 

 minating, solitary ; outer calix three-leaved, large, gashed, 

 erect; the inner calix five-notched; capsule commonly three- 

 cornered, three-valved, three-celled, subovate, acuminate, 

 rugged. Native of the East Indies, and the Eastern coast 

 of Africa. 



3. Gossypium Hirsutum; Rough Cotton. Leaves five-lobed 

 with one gland underneath; the twigs and petioles pubescent. 

 Stem shrubby, a fathom in height, erect, striated; branches 

 hirsute ; petioles round, striated, dotted with black, hirsute. 

 There is a single glandular pore on the midrib underneath, 

 and sometimes two or three on the next nerves ; peduncles 

 three times shorter than the petiole:;, stiff, thick, hirsute, 

 dotted with black; outer calix three or five cleft; the seg 

 ments ovate, acute, rough with hairs ; the inner truncate, 

 with three blunt teeth; petals rounded, retuse, entire, yel- 

 low at the base, purple at the tip, pubescent on the outside; 

 germen ovate, acuminate, dotted with black ; style longer 



7 Y 



