232 The Natural System of Botany. 



age. " But it is the hairy clothing of the seeds of differed 

 plants belonging to a genus that botanists call Gossypi m 

 which is of such pre-eminent importance as to claim for th' 

 Mallow tribe a rank in the vegetable kingdom second only t 

 corn. That hairy substance is Cotton, which, for no conceivn 

 hie purpose except to yield man the means of clothing himself 

 is formed in prodigious abundance upon the back of the seed^ 

 of the Cotton plants, whence it is torn by machinery, and ai- 

 terwards cleaned and spun into thread." The fibres of 

 Cotton are packed round the seeds, to which they adhere with 

 such firmness as to make their separation very difficult. The 

 invention of the Cotton-gin overcomes this difficulty in the 

 most rapid and effectual manner. The usual color of Cotton 

 is white, but there is a Chinese species which produces a yel- 

 low fibre, and it is from this that the stuff called Nankeen is 

 manufactured. To give an idea of the quantity and value of 

 cotton as an article of commerce, it may be stated that in 

 the year 1838 there were imported into the British Islands up- 

 wards of five hundred millions of pounds, and of this was 

 manufactured and exported in the form of woven stuffs, nearly 

 seven hundred million yards, and of twist and yarn about one 

 hundred and fifteen million pounds. The value of these, to- 

 gether with that of other cotton fabrics exported in that year, 

 was over twenty-four milli : s sterling, or about one hundred 

 and twenty million of dollais. 



Order — Bombace^:. The Silk-cotton Tribe. 



The plants of this order differ little from the Mallows, ex- 

 cept in habit and size. Their calyx is not exactly valvate, 

 and the tube formed by the stamens has five divisions. Like 

 Malvaceae their juice is mucilaginous, and their properties are 

 wholesome. The order is remarkable as containing some of 

 the largest trees in the world. The Baobab trees of Senegal 

 have long been the wonder of travellers. Their trunks are 

 sdfnetimes sixty, and even ninety or a hundred feet in girth. 

 Their height is, however, not in proportion to their thickness, 

 being generally but little more than their diameter, and spread- 



