524 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, [July, 1907. 



plot out of seed from the district of SaranJ I searched for such 

 hybrids in the fields diligently when making these observations ; 

 and out of the hundred thousand individual plants which passed 

 under my eyes I selected eight which I think are hybrids a»id a 

 further nine in which a hybrid origin appears not improb- 

 able. 



It seems, then, that insects such as I observed- visiting the 

 flowers in Behar, do produce ai» effect ; but it is an extremely 

 small one indeed — merely a hybird plant here and a hybrid plant 

 there. 



I cannot say how long Bhogila and Asl Deshi have been 

 grown intermixed in Behar : but probably fchey have been culti- 

 vated in the neighbourhood of each otlier for a lon^ time. Bach- 

 aria, spelled Bacliree, (i.e. Asl Deshi) is mentioned as a cotton of 

 Fatna in 1790, along with Bhoga, Nurma, Raria and Guzza ; and 

 Bhoga, which is possibly Bhogila, is stated to be superior to 

 Bachree as Bhogila is now to Bacharia (Reports of E. I. Company in 

 regard to Cotton Wool, London, 1836, p. 349). 



Bhogila and Bhuchiri (Asl Deshi) are mentioned together 

 in a paper read to the Agri-Horticultural Society of India in 

 1830 by Babu Radhakant Deb, as sorts* of "banga," banga 

 being the Behari name for the cotton plant. Bhogila is again 

 mentioned in the Journal of the Aj^ri-Horticultural Society, 

 iv. (1845), p, 106, as a cotton of Gorakpur. There is no doubt 

 as to where the home of Bhogila and Asl Deshi is, Baia-isait 

 is the same word as in Buchanan-Hamilton's " Baresha of 

 Shahabad " (Montgomery Martin, Eastern India, ii., 1838, p. 

 533). However, inasmuch as the khaki cotton called Kokati 

 or Kukti, i.e. G. neglectum^ var. vera, subvar. Kokatzay Gammie,. 

 was prevalent, north of the Ganges, east and west of Tirhut, 

 when Buchanan-Hamilton wrote in J 813, and is no longer now,* 

 some not inconsiderable change has taken place in the nature- 

 of the crops, which may have led only rather recently to the 

 great intermixture of Bhogila or Bara-isar with Asl Deshi which 

 BOW occurs : and this is probable because in the East India 

 Company's report Bhoga and Bhuchiri are said to have had differ- 

 ent uses in 1790, The intermixture is caused in a small 

 measure by a ginning factory having started work at one central 

 place, and in a large measure by so much of the picking being 

 left to women, children, and ignorant hired men; for they gather 



A Kutapnr where some of my observations were made is on the border 

 of Saran ; but I made none within that district. 



* *' Banga gives three sorts, the first called Bhogella, 2nd, Bhochurry, 



and the third, the Pokhy. " Medlicott, in his Cotton Handbook for Bengal, 



Calcutta, 1862, p. 248, erroneously says that these are cottons of Malwa, 



having been misled by the writer's expression ** Central Provinces" and the 



mention of the town of Bhilsa in connection with tobacco at the end of the 



paper. Of course the administration termed the Central Provinces did not 

 exist m 1830. 



• The "Gajar-ganga" seen by me at Dalsing Sarai is probably the 

 sarvival of K Aatia, The name is, I believe, applied to G. arboreum also. 



