Cnar. XIV.) YELLOW COTTON. 265 
wha” by the Chinese, and differs but slightly 
in its structure and general appearance from 
the kind just noticed. I have often compared 
them in the cotton fields where they were growing, 
and although the yellow variety has a more 
stunted habit than the other, it has no characters 
which constitute a distinct species. It is merely 
an accidental variety, and although its seeds 
may generally produce the same kind, they doubt- 
less frequently yield the white variety, and vice 
versd. Hence, specimens of the yellow cotton 
are frequently found growing amongst the white 
in the immediate vicinity of Shanghae ; and again a 
few miles northward, in fields near the city of 
Poushan on the banks of the Yang-tse-kiang, where 
the yellow cotton abounds, I have often gathered 
specimens of the white variety. 
The Nanking cotton is chiefly cultivated in the 
level ground around Shanghae, where it forms the 
staple summer production of the country. This 
district, which is part of the great plain of the 
Yang-tze-kiang, although flat, is yet several feet 
above the level of the water in the rivers and canals, 
and is consequently much better fitted for cotton 
cultivation than those flat rice districts in various 
parts of the country,—such for example as the 
plain of Ning-po,-—where the ground is either wet 
and marshy, or liable at times to be completely 
overflowed. Some fields in this district are, of 
course, low and marshy, and these are cultivated 
