Naturalisation in Extra- Tropical Countries. 219 



Petals yellow, or in age pink or purple. Seeds brown, disconnected, 

 after the removal of the cotton-fibre greenish- velvety. The cotton 

 of long staple, but also a variety occurs with short staple. The 

 New Orleans cotton (G. sanguineum, Hasskarl) belongs to this 

 species. This cotton-fibre is crisp, white, opaque and not easily 

 separable. All Gossypiums can be regarded as honey-plants. 



Gossypium Barbadense, Linne.* 



Sea-Island Cotton. From Mexico to Peru and Brazil. Leaves 

 long-lobed. Petals yellow. Seeds disconnected, black, after the 

 removal of the cotton-fibre naked. The cotton of this species is 

 very long, easily separable, of a silky lustre and always white. 

 This species requires low-lying coast-tracts for attaining to per- 

 fection. Perennial, but yielding like the rest a crop already in the 

 first season. Cultivated largely in the Southern States of North- 

 America, also in South-Europe, Central and North- Africa, Queens- 

 land and various other countries. The cotton-harvest of 1885 in 

 the United States came to f ally 6J million bales, at about 450 Ibs. 

 each [ J. R. Dodge] ; the area there under cotton-cultivation in that 

 year was 18,300,865 acres. G. Kirkii (Masters), from Dar Salam, 

 may be a wild state of G. Barbadense. Another primitive type of 

 this genus in tropical Africa is G. anomaluni, according to Dr. 

 Welwitch. The " Kidney-cotton " is a variety with more acuminate 

 leaves. M. Delchevalerie has drawn attention to a new plant, tall 

 in size and exceedingly prolific in bearing, raised in Egypt, called 

 Bamia-cotton, which Sir Joseph Hooker regards as a variety of G. 

 Barbadense. This Bamia Cotton-bush grows 8 to 10 feet high, 

 ripens (at Galveston) fruit in four or five months, and produces 

 2,500 pounds of cotton and seed per acre. It is remarkable for its 

 long simple branches, heavily fruited from top to bottom. Its cotton 

 is pale-yellow. 



Gossypium herbaceum, Linne.* 



Persia, Scinde, Cabul and some other parts of tropical and sub- 

 tropical Asia. Much cultivated in the Mediterranean countries, 

 also in the United States of North- America and in southern Japan. 

 Perennial. Leaves short-lobed. Petals yellow. Seeds discon- 

 nected, after removal of the cotton-fibre gray -velvety. Distin- 

 guished and illustrated by Parlatore as a species, regarded by See- 

 mann as a variety of G. arboreum. Staple longer than in the latter 

 kind, white-opaque, not easily separating. The wild type of this 

 seems to be G. Stocksii (Masters). Even this species, though sup- 

 posed to be herbaceous, will attain a height of 12 feet. The root 

 of this and some other congeners is a powerful emmenagogue. A 

 variety with tawny fibre furnishes the Nankin-cotton. Oil pressed 

 from cotton-seeds can be used for human rood, but is inferior 

 to good olive-oil and lard in quality. It has most extensively come 

 into use for various processes of factories, so much so that in 1886 

 to a value of over half a million sterling was exported from the United 



