THE HOLLYHOCK AND COTTON FAMILY. 387 



crown-grafting on the neck or collar of the root in April and 

 May are the best plans to adopt. M. Baltet recommends that 

 the scions or grafts be prepared beforehand, and buried in dry 

 sand, as they are liable to rot. They should be sheltered from 

 frost. Graft close to the ground, or better still, take up the 

 roots, cut off the stems of the stock at the collar, and insert the 

 grafts on the junction between the stem and root. This plan 

 prevents, to a great extent, suckers rising from the stock. 



In the 'Gardeners' Chronicle,' 1845, p. 475, a curious in- 

 stance is related of a double-yellow Hollyhock which suddenly 

 produced single white flowers, and then a cluster of yellow 

 flowers, very double, again made its appearance among the 

 other lateral spikes. M. d'Auch, who originally communi- 

 cated the information to the ' Revue Horticole,' remarks that 

 this case is all the more singular, since varieties of Althaa rosea 

 once obtained are very permanent, and produce themselves 

 again by their seed. This last fact is corroborated by Dean 

 Herbert in his ' Amaryllidaceae,' p. 366, where he says : " It is 

 to be observed that in some cases the seminal varieties of 

 plants preserve themselves almost as distinct in their genera- 

 tions as if they were separate species : for instance, the culti- 

 vated double Hollyhocks, of which at least the orange, the 

 yellow, the white, the black, the red, and the pink may be 

 raised with certainty by seed from plants of the several colours, 

 although planted near together in the garden ; yet it is probable 

 that if gardeners were to take the trouble of crossing them with 

 pollen from plants of a different colour, a greater multiplicity of 

 hues would be procured." 



Gossypium (Cotton-plants). The plants of this group, or 

 at least the species which yield the cotton of commerce, are 

 found in Asia and America. In India, Egypt, and other 

 Asiatic countries, Cotton has been cultivated from time im- 

 memorial, just as Flax (Linum) has been also grown for ages. 

 From the 'Treasury of Botany,' p. 544, we learn that "the 

 use of Cotton dates from prehistoric ages, both in the Old 

 World and the New. It is frequently mentioned in the ' In- 

 stitutes of Menu,' a work written eight centuries before the 

 Christian era." The aboriginal Americans used it for clothing 

 long before North America was discovered by Europeans, and 

 manufactured articles of Cotton have been found in the tombs 

 of the Peruvian Incas. G. barbadense is the species culti- 

 vated in the American States; and cultivation and selec- 

 tion have supplied varieties, each of particular excellence, in 

 different localities, or as supplying finer-stapled fibre than the 

 type. G. herbaceum is the native Indian or Asiatic species, its 



