IN EXTEA-TEOPICAL COUNTRIES. 143 



the seeds constituting the cotton o£ commerce. The oil ob- 

 tained by pressure from the seeds is useful for various technic 

 purposes, and the oil-cake can be used like most substances of 

 similar kind for very fattening stable food. Sea Island cotton 

 was raised in splendid perfection in the northern parts of 

 Victoria fully twenty years ago from seeds extensively distri- 

 buted by the writer ; but the want of cheap labour has hitherto 

 militated against the extensive cultivation of the cotton, and 

 so also against the culture of tea and many other industrial 

 plants. Cotton having been raised far away from the influence 

 of the sea air, it would be worthy of attempts to naturahse 

 various kinds of cotton in the oases of our deserts, irrespective 

 of regular culture. Our native Gossypiums of the interior 

 produce no fibre worth collecting. Cotton plants have a 

 predilection for gently undulating or sloping ground, with 

 ■ light soil and a moderate supply of moisture. In the most 

 favourable climes, such as that of Fiji, cotton produces flowers 

 and fruits throughout the year, but the principal ripening falls 

 in the dry season. From two hundred to three hundred plants 

 or more can be placed on an acre. As many as seven hundred 

 pods have been gathered from a single plant at one time, 

 twelve to twenty capsules yielding an ounce of mercantile 

 cotton. Weeding is rendered less onerous by the vigorous 

 growth of the plants. Cotton comes well in for rotation of 

 crops. Major Clarke has ascertained that crossing cannot be 

 effecte dbetween the oriental and occidental kinds of cotton. 

 A high summer temperature is needed for a prolific cotton 

 harvest. Intense heat, under which even maize will suffer, 

 does not injuriously affect cotton, provided the atmosphere is 

 not dry in the extreme. The soil should not be wet, but of a 

 kind that naturally absorbs and retains humidity, without over- 

 saturation. In arid regions it is necessary to irrigate the 

 cotton plant. Heavy rains at the ripening period are injurious, 

 if not destructive, to the cotton crop. Dry years produce the 

 best returns, yet aqueous vapour in the air is necessary for the 

 best yield. In colder localities the balls or capsules continue 

 to ripen after the frosts prevent the formation of new ones. 

 Porous soils resting on limestones and metamorphic rocks are 

 eminently adapted for cotton culture. The canebrake soil of 

 the North American cotton regions absorbs ammonia to a 

 prodigious extent. 



Gourliaca decorticans, Grisebach. 



The Chafiar of Argentina. Bears sweet pleasant fruits and 

 yields a tough valuable wood (Dr. Lorentz) . 



