Cotton Flower and Seed-Head 



The function of cotton fiber is, of course, to protect the 

 seed and to facilitate its distribution. But Nature would 

 scarcely have carried the elaboration of the protective fiber to such a 

 length, had she not been aided by man, who has selected gen- 

 eration after generation among the cotton plants for the 

 ones that produced the best quality of fiber, as 

 gaged by his own needs. The flower is here 

 shown at earlier and later stages of 

 development. 



