?8t CURIOUS Oft USEFUL PLANTS. 



native of the East Indies; a pubescent herb; with the stem spotted 

 with black at its top; leaves downy, penduncles branched, shorter 

 than the petioles ; outer calyx three-parted, with heart-shape, cut 

 segments dotted with black ; corol one-petalled, with a short tube, 

 five-parted, the segments pale yellow, with rive red spots at bottom ; 

 capsule three-valved, three.celled. The pods are not unfrequently 

 as large as middling-sized apples. The common cotton plant thrive* 

 best in respect of pod in new grounds ; but best in respect of fruit 

 in dry stony ground that has been tilled already ; and hence such 

 is the soil generally preferred by our planters. The period of cul- 

 tivation commences in March and April, and continues during the 

 spring rains. The holes for the seeds are made in distinct rows, 

 something like hop-planting, at a distance of seven or eight feet 

 from each other; the seeds are thrown in and earthed over; and 

 when they have shot forth to the height of five or six inches, all 

 the stems are pulled up, excepting two or three of the sliongest. 

 These are cropped twice before the end of August, nor do they bear 

 fruit till after the second pruning. By such repeated croppings, the 

 plant, though naturally an annual, may be prolonged and made to 

 bear sufficiency of fruit to repay the planter for three years, yet it is 

 better to renew them, if there be opportunity. When the cotton is 

 gathered in, the seeds are picked out from the wool, by means of a 

 cotton-mil!, of a simple contrivance, and perfectly adequate to the 

 purpose. 



The cotton shrub of China is rendered essentially useful in that 

 country. When the husbandman has got in his harvest, then he 

 sows cotton in the same fields; and raking the earth over the seeds, 

 a shrub about tv\o feet high is produced, the flowers of which ap- 

 pear by the middle of August. These are generally yellow, but 

 sometimes red. The flower is succeeded by a small button of the 

 size of a nut, which opens in three places; and on the fortieth day 

 after the appearance of the flower, discovers three or four wrappings 

 of cotton extremely white, and of the same form as the cod of the 

 silk-worm ; this being fastened to the bottom pod, contains seed 

 for the following year. It is then the season for getting in the crop; 

 but in fair weather they leave it to be exposed two or three days to 

 the heat of the sun, which causing it to swell, increases its value. 

 As all the fibres of the cotton are strongly fastened to the seeds 

 tliey inclose, the people make use of an engine to separate them. It 



