COTTON OE ECONOMIC PLANTS. 135 



height of 15 to 20 feet ; its leaves are generally heart-shaped, 

 three or five lohed^ and of a soft texture. The flowers are 

 showy, either yellow, pink, or red, succeeded hy a three or five 

 celled capsule, which, when ripe, bursts open, presenting a mass 

 of white filaments, and these, after separation from the seed, 

 form the Cotton of commerce, which, next to food-plants, may 

 be considered of the first importance to man ; the cloth woven 

 from its fibre being now in general use, it may be said, by aU. 

 nations of the earth. The first notice of it is found in ancient 

 Indian books, written more than 800 years before the Christian 

 era. It, however, does not appear to have been known in Greece 

 and "Western Asia in the time of Herodotus, 500 years B.C. 

 That ancient writer says that the Indians had a plant that 

 bore, instead of fruit, a wool like that of sheep, but finer and 

 better, of wMch they naade clothes. Two hundred years after 

 this Theophrastus speaks of it as growing in Ethiopia. It also 

 appears about that time to have become known in Egypt. 

 Cotton also seems to have been early known in America. On 

 the discovery of that country in 1492 Columbus found it in 

 common use by the natives in Cuba. Cortez and Pi^arro found 

 the Cotton plant was utilised in Mexico ; and remains of Cotton 

 cloth having been found in the tombs of the Incas in Peru^ 

 prove its use to be of ancient jdate both in America and India. 

 The seeds of Cotton are about the size of small peas. They 

 contain a large quantity of oil, and are crushed and made into 

 cakes for food for cattle. 



Cotton Grass (Uriophorwn angustifolmm), a perennial plant 

 of the Sedge family (Cyperace^), a native of this country, which, 

 with other species, occupies tracts in marshy ground. When 

 in flower it forms conspicuous masses consequent on its grassy 

 stalks being terminated by a head of flowers, which when per- 

 fect becomes a tuft of white cotton -hke down, with which 

 cushions are sometimes stu.ffed. 



Cotton Thistle (Ono^pordon AcanfhncTii), a biennial of the 

 Composite family (Compositae), a magnificent thistle, native of 

 South Europe; it has become indigenous in this country. 



