CHAPTER II 

 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PLANT 



REFERENCE to many standard works on the subject will 

 provide the reader with full descriptions of the various 

 kinds of cotton-plant; but these descriptions, though 

 accurate and invaluable, do not convey the impression 

 of "livingness." In this chapter we shall therefore 

 attempt to describe the main features of the plant in a 

 somewhat different fashion, presenting rather a kinemato- 

 graph than a simple photograph of the cotton-producing 

 machine. From this we may proceed to details in the 

 ultimate stages of lint formation. 



It may be well to remind the reader that, although this 

 account of the life of the plant * is very largely generalized, 

 and of universal applicability in principles, the mental 

 picture before the author is mainly though by no 

 means exclusively one of Egyptian plants growing 

 under Egyptian conditions. Thus, water is associated 

 in the writer's mind with a controlled irrigation rather 

 than with rain, extreme heat with temperatures from 



* Those readers who, having no knowledge of Botany, are 

 interested in these aspects of Cotton, are advised to read " The 

 Life of the Plant," by Professor C. A. Timiriazeff, in the English 

 translation. (London, 1912.) 



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