Jan. 1, 1865.] THE TECHNOLOGIST. 



ON THE COTTON FLANT. 247 



sington, was pronounced by Dr. Forbes Watson to be of very high 

 quality. 



Away now westwards across the sultry continent : we have had 

 enough of the Bourbons, like our neighbours. 



Brazil and Peru boast of the most curious and distinct cotton tree 

 known. A noble great fellow he is ; too much so for me. My hothouse 

 is fourteen feet high, and in another week he would have broken his neck 

 against the luffer boards ! The seeds in the species are agglomerated 

 together into one kidney-shaped mass, to which the cotton adheres so 

 slightly that it is easily separable by the hand or machine. Some of you 

 may remember to have seen a curious-looking specimen, enshrined in 

 a glass case here at Kensington, and labelled " native African." Of this 

 my friend Mr. Murray surrendered me a seed or two, and here is the 

 result. It produces, I believe, the Pernambuco staple, or Pernams of the 

 trade. The flower has not yet appeared, nor do I know what it will be 

 like, but I think I can anticipate the bright yellow tube and purple 

 spots of the Sea Island. And here, again, crops out my crotchet. In 

 two separate pods of the Sea Island I found seeds adhering to each other 

 by twos ; they are very like those of acuminatum, our present subject, 

 and so is the whole plant except in stature. 



I have another plant here very nearly resembling this in habit, size, 

 and other particulars. It is the Peruvian cotton of Mr. Clements Mark- 

 ham, so well known on account of his services in the establishment of the 

 quinine plant in India. He has succeeded in introducing this fine cot- 

 ton also,* and the Indian-grown produce has been pronounced most 

 satisfactory. The seeds, however, are free, and not massed as in the Kid- 

 ney cotton. 



Away again, Eastward Ho ! and we are in India with the anything 

 but gentle Hindoo and his despised Surat cotton. 



What a different plant it is, with its deeply-cut five-fingered leaf 

 and dull-tinted foliage, sometimes a short and shrubby bush, sometimes 

 tall and slender as a fairy fishing-rod. The flower is very handsome — 

 purple and gold — like that of the Sea Island aristocrat, but the cotton — 

 the cotton — is nowhere. It is usually short, harsh, and only useful in 

 Manchester, when mixed with the medium-stapled sorts from America. 

 Some varieties, however, have the silky quality. The fibre of these is 

 also so extremely fine, that the native women, by their wonderful here- 

 ditary fine sense of touch, have been, and are still able, to spin those 

 gossamer threads and weave those " webs of woven air " which have 

 been the admiration of all times, and have been even sung in soft San- 

 scrit by the dusky poets of the land. 



I have been able, by the kind assistance that has been given to me, 

 to get together several of the numerous varieties of the Indian plant. 

 Here is the celebrated Dacca sort — at least, it pretty well answers the 

 descriptions. Here is the Sacrosaucte reliyiosum, if indeed religlosum 



* The Piura and Imbabura cottons of Spruce. 



