COMMERCIAL FIBRES. 



OOTTON consists of the down or fine cellular hairs attached 

 V^ to the seeds of plants belonging to the genus Gossypium and to 

 the natural order Malvacetz. It is indigenous to all of the inter- 

 tropical regions. These plants supply the raw material for one of our 

 greatest industries, and for the clothing of all nations, and certainly 

 may claim a recognition among the most valuable of nature's pro- 

 duction. 



The cotton plants cultivated in the new and in the old world 

 constitute the two great divisions in the commercial cottons, and are 

 known as the Oriental and the Occidental, or the Indian and the 

 American cottons. The seeds of the Indian cotton are never black 

 and are always covered more or less with epidermal hairs, and the 

 curvature at the base of the leaf lobes is compounded of two oppo- 

 site curves, and not purely heart-shaped as in the case of the Ameri- 

 can plant. "The cottons most in demand among manufacturers of 

 the world, are those of America. The Sea Island plant in the soft 

 maritime climate of the low-lying islands off the coast of Georgia, 

 where frost is scarcely known, has surpassed all other descriptions 

 of cotton in the strength, length and beauty of its staple."* 



The stalks of the cotton plant are made to answer some valu- 

 able purposes. Besides being used for thatch and basket, a fibre is 

 obtained that can be converted into various kinds of cloth, equal to 

 those manufactured from jute. Thus we have a kind of linen goods 

 made from the cotton plant. Paper is manufactured from the stalk 

 and leaf of the plant. 



Cotton hairs are woven into a very great variety of fabrics, 

 more than is imagined by the most of persons ; for about two 

 thousand different samples of cotton goods have been reported. 



Cotton hairs are readily distinguished under the microscope from 

 any other of the fibres. They are long, several times longer than the 



*Isaac Watts, Chairman of the Cotton Supply Association, Manchester, Eng. 



