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 qidn or kutn} 

 which has passed into the modem languages of the south 

 of Europe as cot one, coton, 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.^ 



Gossyj)iwm herhaceum is the species most cultivated 

 in the United States.^ 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.^ The sillvv cotton {sea 

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

 presently speak. 



Tree-Cotton — Gossyphmi arhoreum, 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.^ 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. 



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

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

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

 the products. 



* De Lasteyrie, Du Cotonniery p. 290. 



■ Torrey and Asa Gray, Flora of North America^ L p. 230; Darling, 

 ton, Agricultural Botany, p. 16. 



* Schouw, NatuTschilderungen, p. 152. 



» Masters, in Oliver, Fl, Trap. Afr.,i. p. 211 ; Hooker, Fl. of Brit. Ind., 

 i. p. 347; Schweiiifurth and Ascherson, Aafzalihmg, p. 2fi.5 (under the 

 name Gossypium nigrum) ; Parlatore, Specie dei Cotoni, p. ii5. 



