408 OKIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



fruitful subject of discussion,^ but the clearer distinction 

 of species and the discovery of their origin greatly 

 diminishes the importance of these questions — to natu- 

 ralists, at least, who prefer facts to words. Moreover, 

 Eeynier, and after him 0. Ritter, arrived in their re- 

 searches at a conclusion which we must not forget : that 

 these same names were often applied by ancient peoples 

 to diflferent plants and tissues — to linen and cotton, for 

 example. In this case as in others, modern botany 

 explains ancient words where words and the com- 

 mentaries of philologists may mislead. 



Barbados Cotton — Gossypitmi barbadense, Linnaeus. 



At the time of the discovery of America, the Spaniards 

 found the cultivation and use of cotton established from 

 the West India Islands to Peru, and from Mexico to 

 Brazil The fact is proved by all the historians of the 

 epoch. But it is still very difficult to tell what were the 

 species of these American cottons and in what countries 

 they were indigenous. The botanical distinction of the 

 American species or varieties is in the last degree con- 

 fused. Authors, even those who have seen large collec- 

 tions of growing cotton plants, are not agreed as to the 

 characters. They are also embarrassed by the difficulty 

 of deciding which of the specific names of Linnaeus should 

 be retained, for the original definitions are insufficient. 

 The introduction of American seed into African and 

 Asiatic plantations has given rise to further complica- 

 tions, as botanists in Java, Calcutta, Bourbon, etc., have 

 often described American forms as species under different 

 names. Todaro admits ten American species ; Parlatore 

 reduced them to three, which answer, he says, to Gossy- 

 piv/m hirsutuon, 0. barbadense, and G. religioaum of 

 Linnaeus; lastly. Dr. Masters unites all the American 

 forms into a single species which he calls G. barbadense, 

 giving as the chief character that the seed bears only 



' Eeynier, £eonomie des Arabes et des Juifs., p. 363 ; Bertoloni, A'ow. 

 Act. Acad. Bonon., ii. p. 213, and Miscell. Bot., 6 ; Viviani, in Bibl. Ital., 

 vol. Ixxxi. p. 94 ; C. Eitter, Qiogr. Yerhreitung' der Baumwolle, in 4to. ; 

 Targioni, Oenni Storici, p. 93 ; Brandia, Der Baumwolle in Alterthum, 

 in 8vo, 1880. 



