HISTORICAL 3 



collected are still extant. Two entirely different species 

 of cotton were then under cultivation. One was a tree, 

 grown in Upper Egypt, and apparently identical with 

 Alpino's plant. The other, an annual, peculiar to the 

 Delta, was possibly the same as the cultivated form which 

 Alpino did not describe ; in any case it belonged to the 

 Asiatic group of cottons, still found on the other shore of 

 the Levant, but now extinct in Egypt, and only repre- 

 sented in the Nile Valley by a tree-cotton found in 

 Sennaar, two thousand miles away. 



The cultivation of this short-stapled Asiatic cotton 

 died out in consequence of the economic development of 

 Jumel's plant, and the last trace we find is a record in 

 1840 stating that it was almost extinct. 



The tree-cotton from Upper Egypt, probably identical 

 with Alpino's garden plant, possibly even with that of 

 Pliny, was next brought forward under the aegis of 

 Mohammed Ali, founder of the Khedivate, at the sugges- 

 tion of M. Jumel, a Franco-Swiss engineer. Taken from 

 the garden of Maho Bey, in Cairo, it was propagated 

 rapidly from the year 1820 under a system of State- 

 control, and soon displaced the Asiatic type. The brown, 

 long, strong lint, readily ginned from the almost naked 

 seed, quickly made its reputation with the spinners, and 

 this type of lint has been typical of the Egyptian product 

 ever since. 



To trace the origin of the present cultivated varieties 

 from this stock is almost impossible. Still, the following 

 interpretation meets all the facts at present known. 



The success of Jumel's tree-cotton led to the importa- 

 tion and trial of other cottons, notably Sea Island. 

 Importations of this latter strain, an annual in habit, have 

 continued to the present day. It is not very successful 

 in Egypt, yielding lightly, and suffering unduly from 

 " shedding," but the lint is often of good quality, equal 

 to that of Georgia's and Florida's. The state control of the 



B 2 



