THE MALLOW FAMILY. 



491 



Fruit a capsule, pulpy or dry, with the seeds involved in 

 wool-like hairs. 



Not less than 1000 species constitute this family, being 

 widely distributed over the temperate and tropical regions 

 of both hemispheres. Many are of weedy nature, but gene- 

 rally have pretty flowers. They abound in mucilage, and 

 are not known to contain any poisonous qualities. 



Cotton {Gossypium herhaceum). Next to food plants the 

 cotton plant may be considered first in importance to man. 

 Cloth woven from the hairs of its seeds has been a universal 

 article of clothing to all civilized and semi-civilized people 

 from time immemorial. It is recorded as having been in 

 use in India and Egypt many centuries before the Christian 

 era. Herodotus speaks of the Indians having a plant pro- 

 ducing wool like that of sheep, and according to Pliny it was 

 early cultivated in the South of Europe. On the discovery 

 of America it was found to be known there, the remains of 

 cotton cloth having been discovered in the tombs of the 

 Incas, thus proving it to be of ancient date. The weaving 

 of cotton cloth in this country is said to have commenced 

 about the end of the sixteenth century, but it was not until 

 cotton became extensively cultivated in the then British 

 colonies of North America that its manufacture attained im- 

 portance. About the middle of the last century it received 

 a great impetus by the invention of cotton spinning ma- 

 chinery. Eaw cotton now became the chief article of import 

 trade to this country, and the manufactured goods the chief 

 article of export, being sent to all nations of the earth. 



There are several varieties of the cotton plant, which as- 

 sumes different characters under cultivation. It is generally 

 treated as an annual, but if left alone, under favourable cir- 

 cumstances, it becomes a branched shrub 6 or 8 feet high. The 

 flowers are very showy, being yellow, pink, or red, followed 

 by a 3 or 5 -celled capsule, about the size and shape of a fig, 

 which when ripe bursts open through the middle of each cell, 

 presenting a mass of fine white filaments, to which the seeds 

 are attached. These white filaments constitute the cotton 



