DICOTYLEDONS: ARCHICHLAMYDEA 295 
tiums, fuchsias, etc.; and some very useful plants also 
belong to scattered families. These latter may be grouped 
as follows: 
(1) Fisers.—The fiber plants are numerous, but there 
are three very conspicuous ones among the Archichlamydezx. 
Cotton.—The cotton plant is by far the most important 
fiber plant grown, being cultivated over a greater area and 
used for a larger number 
of purposes than any 
other fiber plant (Fig. 
285). The cultivated va- 
rieties have originated 
from several tropical spe- 
cies, but in the United 
States the Sea Island 
cotton and the upland 
cotton are grown almost 
exclusively. The genus 
(Gossypium) belongs to 
the Mallow Family (Mal- 
vacee), to which the hol- 
lyhock and the hibiscus 
also belong, the most con- 
spicuous peculiarity of 2 
the flower being the ap- Fic. 285.—The cotton plant: A, flowering 
branch; B, fruit (boll) bursting; C, seed 
parent coalescence of the _ with fibers (lint)—After Wossrpto. 
numerous stamens into a 
central column (Fig. 214). The capsule (boll) of the cot- 
ton plant contains numerous seeds, which are covered with 
long hairs (lint) that are the cotton fibers (Fig. 285, C). 
At maturity the bolls burst, and the lint protrudes in a 
fluffy, cottony mass (Fig. 285, B). The cotton-gin was in- 
vented to separate the lint from the seeds, and the revolu- 
tion it brought about in the cotton industry is well known. 
The Sea Island cotton, with its long and silky fibers, is 
20 
