166 



Notices of Books. 



[July 



ing, of the genus Gossypium. He, following, but going beyond 

 Dr. F. Buchanan Hamilton, reduces the whole series to two, 

 doubtfully three. Hamilton has three, one of which he reduces. 

 Mr. Lush's two species may be distinguished, the first, by having the 

 seeds in each cell of the capsule distinct ; the second, by their being 

 combined, and more or less strongly adherent, into a single conical 

 shaped body : neither the ever-varying forms, duration, nor native coun- 

 try of the plant, nor the colour of the cotton, or absence, or presence, 

 of fur on the seeds,* have any weight with him in forming specific 

 differences. The free or combined seeds is his only character ; at 

 least such we infer to be his meaning for he does not state it very 

 clearly : hence all our native, or, so called, country cottons, and the 

 long list of introduced nankeen and American sorts, are considered 

 only so many varieties of a single species. The inference from which, 

 at least as we understand him, is, that — as all these varieties are apt, 

 under change of circumstances, to undergo a change of character, and 

 pass from one variety into another, or into new ones, more or less 

 valuable, according as the alteration of soil, climate and culture, has 

 been more or less suited to draw forth the best energies of the plant — 

 it is fruitless labour to try to introduce these foreign varieties into 

 India : for, unless we can provide them with a nearly identical soil and 

 climate, which it is assumed we cannot do, they will speedily revert to 

 the forms now in cultivation, or even deteriorate below that standard, 

 though cultivated with the care and cost of an expensive exotic : and, 

 lastly, that to bestow such pains on an exotic would be worse than 

 useless, because our formerly much despised Indian staple, as it is, 

 daily rises in estimation, and is in such demand for the China and 

 English market, that the quantity exported has risen from eighty or 

 ninety lakhs to three crore of rupees annually, and that now, Surats 

 greatly inferior to those which in 1829 were quoted at 3| are valued 

 at from 6d. to 7d. per pound, and the superior sorts, though badly 

 cleaned, fetch a price fully equal to that of Upland Georgia of 1829, 

 owing to the rise of price having suggested new modes of separating 

 the impurities at home, and has rendered a dirty short fibred cotton not 

 so bad an article : therefore, since bd. a pound will give the merchant 

 and grower an ample profit, and while there is so little difference be- 

 tween the price of a dirty and clean cotton, why take the trouble to 

 attempt to alter this comparative ratio, or why need we fear compe- 



* M. Jacquemont writes him on this subject, * I am very sceptical about Gossypii 

 species, such as G, Barbadense, G. Arborium, G. Viiij'olium, and I do not see any thing 

 in your G. Cuspidaium calculated to shake my scepticism, I would swear to two, but not 

 even to three. ' 



" However, I confess my scepticism was not confirmed, until I saw further the results 

 of cultivation of American cotton in an experimental farm, and the conversion of green- 

 seeded American into black-seeded cotton like Bourbon." 



