466 FIELD CROPS 



pink on the second day, so that a field in bloom is very 

 attractive. Cotton is commonly open-pollinated. 



The fruit or "boll" is enclosed by leafy bracts when 

 small, and is then commonly known as the "square." It 

 finally develops into a pointed, somewhat egg-shaped body, 

 about the size of a small hen's egg, closely packed with seeds 

 and lint. It is composed of three to five cells. When ripe, 

 the boll turns brown and the cells separate along the central 

 axis and also split down the back, so that the lint and seeds 

 are exposed. The seeds which are about three-eighths of an 

 inch long and one-half as wide, are thickly covered with lint 

 and fine fuzz. The lint, which is the cotton of commerce, 

 is from seven-eighths to one and one-half inches long in the 

 ordinary varieties, the fuzz or linters one-fourth inch or 

 less. The seed consists of a thick seed coat or hull and an 

 oily yellowish-white kernel. 



613. Other Species. Sea Island cotton, Gossypium 

 barbadense, differs from the ordinary type in that it grows 

 taller, has longer branches, yellow flowers, longer and finer 

 fiber, and seeds free from fuzz. It is grown in the West 

 Indies and on the islands and lower lands along the coast 

 of the Carolinas and Georgia. Egyptian cotton is generally 

 considered to be a variety of G. barbadense. It has a long, 

 strong fiber and is very similar in many ways to Sea Island 

 cotton. It is grown almost exclusively in Egypt, but some 

 success has recently been attained in growing it under irri- 

 gation in Arizona and southern California. India cotton, 

 Gossypium herbaceum. has more slender stems than the 

 ordinary upland type, leaves with rounded lobes, and smaller, 

 less pointed bolls. The lint may be white, yellow, or brown. 

 Its cultivation is confined to southern Asia. 



614. Cotton Fiber or Lint. The cotton of commerce is 

 the lint or surface fibers with which the seed is covered. 



