82 



TEXTILE FIBRES. 



Fig. 52.-Pollen grains of cotton plant (magn.). 



hardly suitable for the growing of cotton, and lately the attention paid 

 to its cultivation has been rather quiet. East Indian cotton pods may be 

 reduced to four or three segments, and often only three carpels are found 



in the capsule or boll. 



Fig. 55 shows a few 

 East Indian capsules and. 

 some seed cotton. The 

 segments vary from three 

 to five. The black spots 

 shown in the white car- 

 pels are insect - stained 

 portions. These samples 

 were collected by Mr. 



\j>r Hatton, of the Baroda 



Mills, India, and sent 

 over to this country to 

 John Andrew, Esq., Re- 

 porter Office, Ashton- 

 under-Lyne. 



Fig. 56 is a twig of 

 an American cotton plant with two capsules fully opened, and one 

 showing the segments or capsules separating from one another in the 

 opening fruit. There is no fracture or bursting of the fruit by the 

 pressure of the fibres from the inside, as is sometimes stated. The 

 opening of the capsule 

 does not depend upon 

 the pressure within, but 



rather on the drying up v ^ V I i 4 



of the coherent mem- 

 brane sutures or valves 

 of the capsules. 



Fig. 57 is the upper 

 part of a twig from an 

 American plant which 

 was shown in competi- 

 tion at the last Cotton 

 Centenary of America. 

 The large bolls, heavily 

 laden with seed cotton, 

 were displayed on the plant, fully ripe. It won the blue ribbon 

 at the Centenary, and the whole plant, with the ribbon attached, was 

 sent to a cotton broker in Liverpool, who presented it to the late 



Fig. 53. Capsules of cotton plant. 



