16 WEEVIL-RESISTING ADAPTATIONS OF COTTON. 



differences, sufficient to have a very practical bearing upon the ques- 

 tion of securing strains having the special characters required in the 

 United States. Indeed, there was nearly as much diversity among 

 the Guatemalan plants as among all the Upland varieties, though 

 these were in some ea-e> unusually variable, as a result apparently 

 of the transfer to new and unwonted conditions of climate and soil. 



The usual number of locks or cells in a boll of the Kekchi cotton is 

 four, but bolls containing three or five are not uncommon : often they 

 are on plant.- which have otherwise the usual number. 



There is also considerable diversity on the same plant in the shape 

 of the bolls, some, for example, remaining quite conical and pointed. 

 while others round out to near the apex. One plant was observed 

 in which the bolls were very nearly spherical. The involucre was 

 also unusually large. The plant had an unusually deep red or black- 

 ish color, and was distinctly more vigorous than its neighbor-, as 

 often happen- with mutations. 



It is not at all probable that a close selection has ever been prac- 

 ticed by the Indians, so that a wide diversity of mutational charac- 

 ters may be expected when once the variety has been brought under 

 careful observation. 



The stems and petiole- of the Kekchi cotton plant are dark red. 

 or at least spotted with red. and the leave- turn dull red with matu- 

 rity. The bracts and bolls are green when young, but with age and 

 exposure to the sun become more or less tinged or spotted with red.' 2 

 The outer involucral nectaries also turn deep red. especially the two 

 upper one.-, even while the buds are still very young. The great 

 majority of the leaves are simply three-pointed, but many of them 

 have an additional smaller lateral point on each side near the base. 



a One plant at Seeanqnim showed a very decided instance of variegation 

 with white and red. though the latter color might have been due to an increased 

 tendency of the white portions to take the red discoloration common on normal 

 leaves. The lower branches of the plant show only normal green coloration. 

 and a part of the upper branches is also normal in color and size, and with 

 fruits rather above the average size. The variegated branches do not regu- 

 larly alternate, nor do they come all from one side, but they might still have 

 connection with the phyllotaxy. There seem to be two stages of the variega- 

 tion, a white and a light greenish-yellow : the latter may belong only to young 

 leaves. Both are distributed with the utmost irregularity, and both may 

 affect the upper surface of the leaf while the under surface remains green, or 

 vice versa, though the latter condition is much less common than the former. 

 The etiolated portions of the leaves, involucres, -and fruits do not attain the 

 full size of the corresponding normal organs, so that the parts affected are 

 more or less unsymmetrical. though where the variegation is slight this result 

 may be apparent, or if it be complete the symmetry is not affected. Except 

 for two premature bolls the seed was not ripe, and these were from the nor- 

 mal lower part of the plant. 



