4 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RAW COTTON 



is to sail dangerously near controversy, but the fate of 

 its descendants is less uncertain. 



The other characters of this primitive cotton were these 

 common to related genera within the suborder Gossypice (or 

 Hibiscce) of the order Malvacce, which is very definitely 

 distinct from the other suborders, and includes such obviously 

 cotton-like plants as Hibiscus and Abutilon. All have 

 capsule fruits, as distinguished from the one-seeded fruitlets 

 of the Mallows, and, in common with all the Malvicce, they 

 possess a staminal column, formed by the united develop- 

 ment of many stamens into a tube which surrounds the style, 

 and bears a brush of stamens externally. 



At the present day certain wild cottons are found 

 which represent the descendants of this primitive ancestor 

 not. so very much altered, such as the wild species Gos- 

 sypium sturtii in Australia. The existence of this latter 

 form indicates that the genus was definitely cotton- 

 like and probably widely spread before the Australian 

 continent was isolated from Eurasia, so that cotton is 

 by no means a new genus, even from a geological stand- 

 point. 



The modifications which led to the cultivated cottons 

 of to-day may be sketched as follows : 



At an early stage the offspring of some primitive 

 cotton-plants threw off a group having leaves cut into 



, rounded lobes, and of only moderate size. 

 Evolution of J 



the Various From this stock are descended the plants 

 Species of which we may group for convenience as 

 3n ' the " Asiatic cottons," comprising the ma- 

 jority of cultivated Indian cottons, Levant cottons 

 with the extinct cotton of mediaeval Northern Egypt, 



