COLOUR OF NANKIN COTTON. 365 



many samples of it ; and I have frequently had specimens 

 of it from other, but always arid, dry, and hot parts of 

 the world. The Maltese, however, has always been the 

 best. It is very short in staple, coarse, and of little value 

 in itself, especially as so little of it is produced. Being 

 high-coloured, of course, if used alone, it would give a high 

 peculiar colour to the cloth ; and as mixing it with whiter 

 cotton generally stripes and spoils the cloth, it is in very 

 bad repute. In China and Japan it gets more dusky and 

 dark, and even lower in staple. On the west coast of 

 Africa it seems to be hybridized and modified in colour ; 

 the seed, when cleaned from the cotton, is generally only 

 half clothed with the fibre, the other half being black. 

 But whether Nankin-coloured or a little whiter, it is 

 always on that coast much longer in staple, and, though 

 rather coarse, still a good useful cotton. Nankin cotton 

 is always, so far as I have seen, from fibrous-coated seed. 

 According to my experience, it is only in very hot countries, 

 and on a rather arid soil, that the really dark Nankin is 

 produced. I think, if experiments were tried for three 

 or four years together, Maltese on the west coast of Africa 

 would resemble African, and West- African seed sown at 

 Malta would become Maltese cotton ; and I almost think 

 that West-African seed, which at home produces yellow- 

 tinged cotton, would, in one or two years, in the New- 

 Orleans district produce white cotton. I further think 

 that pure New-Orleans seed, sown at Malta, in three or 

 four years would give cotton of the red tinge of ordinary 

 Maltese." Mr. Clegg seems therefore to agree with those 

 who think that the variations in colour observed in cotton 

 are entirely owing to differences of climate and soil, and are 

 not peculiarities attaching to different species of the plant. 

 I may further quote a few observations on this kind of 

 cotton from a communication on the subject by Lieut.-Col. 

 R. Trevor Clarke, who writes as follows: — "The nankeen 



