PEDIGREE 7 



differentiated fuzz and lint. Whether the modern lint 



is the primitive fuzz enlarged, with a new kind of fuzz 



below it, or whether the lint is a new de- 



on velopment above the primitive fuzz, is not 

 of Lint. 



easily ascertainable, and it is, indeed, quite 



possible that evolution may have taken place in both 

 ways. That there is very little essential difference be- 

 tween fuzz and lint is quite certain, and in any case the 

 original evolution must have taken place by the forma- 

 tion of a new layer of seed hairs. Both lint and fuzz 

 exhibit similar colourings, due to closely similar if not 

 identical chemical substances, through greens and 

 browns to white. It may not be generally known that 

 cotton with lint of a vivid emerald green is sometimes 

 found in American Upland, and is known as " Texas 

 wool." The behaviour of these colours on crossing is 

 the same in lint and fuzz, as also is the distribution of 

 lint and fuzz on the seed. 



From the primitive cotton-seed, with its coating of 

 fuzz, there thus evolved a seed with two 



coatings, and it may be of interest to con- 

 tne Lint. 



sider the effect of such evolution upon the 



chance of the plant in the struggle for existence. 



It has been repeatedly asserted that the lint is an adap- 

 tation for wind distribution, but the probability of this 

 statement is very dubious. That open bolls 



may be stripped of their cotton by the wind 

 Distribution. J J 



is undeniable, but there the matter ends, 



short of a cyclone. The seeds are not blown out one by 

 one as a rule, but in a lock of six or seven ; they are too 



