GOSSYPIUM COTTON. 107 



GOSSYPIUM. —Cotton. 



Gossypium herbaceum Linne. — Cotton Plant. 



Description. — Calyx tubular-campanulate, obscurely 5-toothed, much 

 shorter than the epicalyx of 3 large, cordate, deeply incised and toothed 

 leaves. Corolla : petals large, convolute in the bud, spreading when ex- 

 panded, irregularly obovate-truncate, wedged-shaped at the base, yellow, 

 with a purple spot changing to reddish-brown. Stamens numerous, uni- 

 ted and forming a long tube, connected at the base with the claws of the 

 petals. Ovary conical, 3- to 5-celled, many-ovuled. Style simple, longer 

 than the stamens ■ stigma clavate, slightly 3- to 5-lobed. Fruit a 3- to 5- 



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Fig. 114. — Gossypium herbaceum. Flower and fruit. 



celled capsule, opening at maturity through the middle of the cells and 

 exposing numerous seeds covered with the white filaments so well known 

 as cotton. 



A stout herbaceous plant, with an erect, branching, leafy stem, about 5 

 feet high, naturally perennial but cultivated as an annual. Leaves large, 

 3 to 6 inches long, 3- to 5-lobed, with a single gland below, strongly veined, 

 the lobes acuminate and mucronate ; petioles about as long as the blade, 

 stiff and angular. Lower leaves often 2- or 3-lobed. Flowers large, 3 

 inches broad, alternate, opposite the leaves ; pedicels similar to the 

 petioles but shorter. 



Habitat. — The cotton plant has been cultivated for so great a length of 

 time that its natural habitat is uncertain. It nourishes within the limits 

 of 36° north and south of the equator. Though scarcely naturalized, the 

 extent to which it is cultivated in the Southern States entitles it to a place 

 among North American plants. 



Part Used. — The bark of the root : Gossypii radicis cortex — cotton- 

 root bark. Gossypium— cotton — United States Pharmacopoeia. 



Constituents. — Of cotton it is only necessary to state that the article 



