90 REPORT — 1839. 



(^Cuscuta epilinum), first found in Britain, two years ago, by himself; 

 and again in a new locality, within the present month. Having noticed 

 the distinctions between this plant and C. Europcea, as well as C. epili- 

 num of Weihe, Mr. Bowman described the peculiarities in structure of 

 this singular parasite. When it has fixed itself upon the flax, the root 

 and lower part of the stem shrivel up and die away, and a group of 

 little warts or tubercles is produced from the inner surface of the spire 

 between each head, which strike into the flax and extract its juices. 

 This economy places each head nearly in the situation of an independ- 

 ent plant ; so that, if the stem were separated at intervals, each de- 

 tached portion would continue to flower and to ripen its seed. This 

 view occurred to him, on observing that the stem gradually thickened 

 upwards as it approached each head, and was again reduced to half its 

 diameter immediately above it ; each head being thus dependent on its 

 own subordinate system of exhausting suckers. Another beautiful 

 compensation for the loss of the root, and supporting the view just 

 advanced, is found in the succulent nature of the flowers, which are as 

 fleshy as the leaves of the Mesembryanthemum tribe, and contain re- 

 servoirs of nutriment to insure the ripening of the seed, and supply the 

 deficiency consequent on the desiccation of the flax. 



On the Cultivation of the Cotton of Commerce. 

 By Major-Gen. Briggs. 



The objects proposed in this paper are — First, to excite inquiry on 

 the various species of cotton plant that produce the cotton of commerce. 

 Secondly, to ascertain the nature of soils adapted to each. Thirdly, to 

 prove the practicability of cultivating the plant in India, for the supply 

 of the British market to any extent. Of the species that produce the 

 various cottons of commerce, we have at present very little accurate 

 knowledge, and this has arisen from the alterations undergone by the 

 plants in the process of cultivation. But there can be no doubt that 

 the plants which produce cotton in America, Asia, and Africa, are of 

 decidedly different species. The plant that produces the Brazil cotton, 

 probably the Gossypium hirsutum, grows to the height of from ten to 

 twenty feet, is perennial, and produces cotton with a long and strong 

 staple, and moderately fine and silky. The plant common to the West 

 Indies, said to have been imported from Guiana, is triennial, bearing 

 abundantly a fine silky long staple, and is the Gossypium barbadense 

 of botanists. This also is the plant which produces the Sea-island 

 cotton. When this plant was carried from the coast into the interior 

 of Georgia and Carolina, in the United States of America, the seed 

 changed from a black to a green colour, and the staple became shorter, 

 coarser, and more woolly. This plant was afterwards introduced into 

 Egypt, and is the same that produces the Bourbon cotton, cultivated 

 by the French on that island. Mr. Spalding, in a letter alluded to by 

 Mr. G. R. Porter, in his work on tropical productions, records several va- 

 rieties, attention to which is of the greatest importance to the cultiva- 

 tion, since they vary in the character of their staple, in the shape and 



