231 



of cotton that has probably been quite unchanged from its pristine 

 condition. 



" It at once occurred to us that this race might prove a very 

 valuable one for breeding purposes, inasmuch as it furnishes a 

 new point of departure." 



Dr. O. F. Cook's comment in the same number of Science is 

 partly given below. 



" Professor Britton's account of the conditions under which 

 this primitive type of cotton grows would seem to establish be- 

 yond doubt that it is really a wild plant. The very small bolls 

 and sparse lint would seem to preclude the idea that this cotton 

 was introduced into the island for civilized agriculture. If not 

 truly indigenous it must have been brought in aboriginal times, 

 or by accident. 



"The existence of wild cotton in Jamaica has been claimed by 

 Macfayden and others, but the evidence has not been convincing. 

 Macfayden described two species of cotton {Gossypi2iin jamaicense 

 and G. oligospenmmi) as native to Jamaica, but both are said to 

 have yellow flowers and have been reckoned as forms of Sea 

 Island cotton {Gossypiiim barbadense'). White flowers are not 

 known in any cottons of the Sea Island series. In the charac- 

 ters of the seeds and bolls Professor Britton's cotton closely re- 

 sembles a type which grows wild on the Florida Keys." 



NEWS ITEMS 



Dr. J. M. Reade has been promoted from instructor to pro- 

 fessor of botany at the University of Georgia. 



Dr. Friedrich Hildebrand, professor of botany at Freiburg, re- 

 cently celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of his doctorate. 



Mr. W. W. Eggleston is making studies and collections of 

 Crataegus in Virginia and North Carolina. 



Professor G. W. Wilson, of Upper Iowa University, held a re- 

 search scholarship at the New York Botanical Garden during 

 the past summer. 



Professor F. S. Earle, recently director of the Estacion Agro- 



