84 TEXTILE FIBRES. 



William Hague, Esq., of Ashton-under-Lyne. The illustration shows 

 the masses of cotton, mature and of immense size. The pearly-white 

 fibres enclosing the seeds are gracefully suspended from the capsules 

 of the cotton twig. It is certainly creditable to American cotton- 

 growers to produce such a fine 

 example of capsules in a stage 

 of full dehiscence. 



Fig. 58 is a section cut 

 longitudinally through a young 

 cotton capsule, showing the fine 

 cotton seeds also cut through, 

 and the white fibres in, the 

 interior of the pod. The stalk 

 of the capsule shows a node or 

 joint which is thickened. It 

 then tapers to the point of 

 insertion. The leaf-like expan- 

 sion shown on the right; is a 

 fringed foliate bract. This 

 example is taken from a plant 

 grown by Mr. Wm. Hough, 

 gardener to Abel Buckley, Esq., 

 J.P., Ryecroft Hall, Ashton- 

 under-Lyne. 



Fig. 59 is a photo-micro- 

 graph of fibres taken from the 

 interior of one of the immature 

 capsules of the previous illus- 

 tration. When the fruit is 



immature and in a growing 

 Fig. 56. Twig from American cotton plant. 



state, it has a moist or turgid 



condition internally, and the fibres have then a flattened, flabby appear- 

 ance, as shown, also a flexibility and softness evidently peculiar to unripe 

 and immature cotton fibres. 



A cotton seed has two or three membranous coverings the outer one 

 through which the fibres penetrate, an intermediate one to which the fibres 

 are attached, and a chocolate-coloured or corky membrane which surrounds 

 the kernel of the seed and prevents the oil from the glands of the kernel 

 oozing through the membrane and staining the cellulose fibres. These 

 glands are the source of the cotton seed oil of commerce. Cotton seeds 

 are conical or egg-shaped, with a plumose covering of hairs or fibres. 

 Their attachment to the seed is typical of the genus. 



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