6 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RAW COTTON 



of the two branches of this cleavage have given rise at the 

 present day to the " Peruvian group " and the " Uplands 

 group " respectively. The former embraces the Sea 

 Islands, Peruvian, and Egyptian cottons ; while the latter 

 is commonly typified by American Uplands, Cambodia, 

 and the Hindi Weed cotton of Egypt. The origin of the 

 former group was probably in Central America, while 

 Persia or China is indicated as the original habitat of 

 the latter. It should be remembered that the form 

 from which we have designated the latter group is 

 entitled to the honour only on account of its commercial 

 importance, having been imported to America from 

 Asia. 



It would be interesting to attempt to follow the sub- 

 divisions of the genealogical tree through the ages, but 

 such discussion would be nine-tenths pure 

 r l speculation, eked out by fragments of evi- 



dence from dried specimens, from the atlas, 

 and from the beginnings of experimental work on 

 heredity in cotton, by which the inherited structural 

 components are slowly being analyzed out and traced to 

 their source. For our present purpose it will suffice to 

 leave the matter at the simple conception of three main 

 branches (PL IV.), with a few slender twigs coming off 

 at intervals to hint to us what the nature of the extinct 

 ancestors might have been. * 



We may next discuss the origin of the lint itself (PI. V.), 

 and of its accompanying " fuzz." 



The most primitive of the surviving cottons vary in 

 their seed coatings from a single coat of fuzz to fully 



