May 1, 1865.] THE TECHNOLOGIST. 



THE TECHNOLOGIST. 



THE CULTURE OF COTTON IN NORTHERN 

 PERU. 



BY RICHARD SPRUCE, PH.D. 



1 have now to describe all the kinds of cotton I saw cultivated at 

 Monte Abierto, under the name by which they are known there. It 

 matters little whether we call those kinds species, or varieties, or races. 

 They are easily distinguished in the living state, and differ much from 

 one another in the period of maturity and in the quantity and quality 

 of their yield ; nor are new forms readily produced, even where many 

 kinds are grown side by side. It is therefore necessary to discriminate 

 between them, and to give them some kind of name by which we may 

 talk about them ; but all the kinds I have to describe (except the last) 

 appear to deserve no higher rank than varieties — namely, of the species 

 called by authors Gossypium barbadense. I begin with the common cot- 

 ton of the country, known as — 



Algodon criollo, Algodon de Piura x or Algodon de Payta (Piura, or 

 Native Cotton). 



Descr. — A bushy shrub or tree. Ramuli and petioles rough with 

 tubercles, and bearing a few sparse hairs. Leaves 8x9 inches, full 

 green, thinnish, rugose, cloven to more than f of their length; lobes 3 or 

 5, sharply acuminate, keeled, nearly naked above, subpubescent beneath. 

 Involucral leaves 3"4 x 2*6 inches, scarcely paler than the leaves, nearly 

 smooth, laciniated in the upper half, rarely nearly down to base, each 

 wit i a large round red basal gland ; apical lacinise very long, subulate 

 acuminate. Calyx slightly sinuate at margin. Capside 3 or 4-celled, 

 ovate, not acuminate or very slightly, 2x1-7 inches (when 4-celled), 



2 x 1-4 inches (when 3-celled). Seeds, 7 or 8 in a cell, quite naked 

 (when divested of the cotton), rarely with a very little fuzz at the base. 

 Cotton moderately long, soft, rather silky. 



The contents of a 4-celled pod of average size iveighed 129 grs., 

 vol. v. z z 



