TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 91 



size of their pods, in the hue of the cotton, and in the duration of the 

 plant. The common indigenous plant of India is the Gossypium her- 

 baceum of botanists, and differs in appearance from the cottons of the 

 Western world ; besides which, there is the Gossypium religiosum, pro- 

 ducing the brown cotton, extensively grown in China. The former plant 

 is usually cultivated as an annual, but has been successfully treated and 

 grown as a perennial, by the process of pruning down when the cotton 

 is gathered. The produce of this plant is not inferior in fineness, and 

 is superior in point of richness of colour, to the best cottons of Ame- 

 rica. The staple is however short ; and by the great neglect hitherto 

 evinced in picking the produce at the proper time, and carelessness in 

 allowing particles of dried leaves, or the calyx of the flower to adhere 

 to the wool, it fetches a lower price, and is considered an inferior ar- 

 ticle, in the English market, to the New Orleans and Georgian of 

 America, though really superior in quality and durability. There is 

 another kind of cotton produced from a species in Africa, which Dr. 

 Royle considers allied to the Gossypium herbaceum of India. 



Several specimens of American soils on which cotton is grown, have 

 been analysed by Mr. E. Solly, and he finds them generally to consist 

 — first, of a preponderating quantity of sand. Secondly, of alumina or 

 clay. Thirdly, of the oxides of iron and manganese, which give the 

 varying colours to the soil. Foui'thly, of very small proportions of 

 carbonate and sulphate of lime. And lastly, of organic matter in two 

 states; a fibro-vegetable and a soluble matter forming from four to 

 eight per cent. Soils of this kind, where hardly anything else will grow, 

 are adapted for the cotton plants of America ; a fact mentioned by Mr. 

 Porter, and confirmed by Mr. Gray, who was for some years a cultiva- 

 tor of the plant in America. The land on which the indigenous plant 

 of India termed Gossypium herbaceum grows, is very different. It is 

 composed chiefly, not of sand, but of the results of the decomposition 

 of trap rocks, the debris of the mountains that constitute the extensive 

 trap formation of central India. This soil lies upon or borders on the 

 limestone ; it contains a large quantity of vegetable matter, abounds in 

 oxide of iron, is retentive of moisture, and forms a rich tenacious loam 

 approaching to clay. Such is the soil of the indigenous cotton plant of 

 India, and therefore differs from that of America, so that we ought not 

 to be surprised to learn that all attempts at cultivating the American 

 plant in this soil have failed. But there are in India abundant other 

 soils on which the indigenous plant will not thrive. These prevail in 

 Bengal, on the Coromandel coast, and in fact throughout India. They 

 consist mainly of the detritus resulting from the disintegration of rocks 

 of the primary and secondary formations, such as granite, gneiss, sand- 

 stones, with here and there lime, producing a light soil, fertile or other- 

 wise according to the quantity of organic matter it may contain. The 

 indigenous plant will not grow here, but the American plants thrive on 

 it. This has been proved by experimental farms near Bombay, and 

 the Western Coast, in Upper Hindustan, on the Malayan Peninsula, 

 and on the shores of Coromandel, in all of which tracts of Ameri- 

 can plants are growing at present in much perfection, though not in 

 quantities sufficient to make any impression on the cotton market of 



