MALVACEAE 291 



placentation axile seeds in some species covered with 

 short hairs. 



GOSSYPIUM HERBACEUM, L., the ordinary Cotton 

 plant of South India. There are numerous varieties 

 of Cotton plants, differing in various minor character- 

 istics of the leaves or lint, and some belong to other 

 species. They are all, however, herbs or small shrubs 

 with alternate stipulate leaves, which are simple, peti- 

 oled, three to five lobed, glabrous or not, the lobes 

 entire. One or more of the main ribs have a gland 

 on the under side. Flowers singly on axillary pedun- 

 cles, with just below the calyx three large bracteoles 

 forming an epi-calyx. (Different species and varieties 

 differ in the amount of cutting of the edges of these 

 bracteoles.) Calyx almost entire, a cup with black dots 

 and hardly a trace of teeth (see p. 207). Petals yellow 

 with purple mark at the base, slightly connected with 

 the stamens, overlapping each other by one edge, and 

 twisted in bud. Stamens forming a staminal tube round 

 the style, with numerous connectives each with a curved 

 or kidney-shaped, anther, which opens by one slit. Style 

 single swollen at the end, but not divided. Ovary three 

 (sometimes four) celled. Fruit opening by the outer 

 wall splitting down between the partitions and rolling 

 back so that the seeds escape, and therefore a loculicidal 

 capsule. Seeds attached originally to the inner angles 

 of the cells, covered with long white hairs (cotton). 



ERIODENDRON ANFRACTUOSUM, D.C. A tree with 

 a straight rather prickly bent and whorls of branches 

 sticking out stifly at right angles ; conspicuous enough 

 in the early months of the year when the leaves have 

 fallen and the branches are bare. 



