CHAPTER IX. 
STRUCTURE AND BOTANICAL RELATIONS 
The several species of every plant or animal 
known to man have been properly classified and 
grouped. It has required untold labor and pains 
through years and centuries to make this important 
contribution to the total sum of knowledge, but 
the result is well worth the effort it has cost. 
A discussion of the causes that have entered into 
the production of families, species and varieties 
would not be in place here, but some of them are so 
interesting and so intimately concerned with the 
development and improvement of the cotton plant 
as to make it necessary to consider them briefly. 
The cotton plant is a member of the Malvaceae 
or mallow family, and to scientists is known by 
the generic name Gossypium. The plant is given 
to much variation, and a very large number of 
varieties are the result. Differences in soil, in 
climate, and in environment have been the primary 
factors in producing these variations. 
INFLUENCE OF HEREDITY 
In the perpetuation of any plant or animal the 
importance of heredity is recognized by all. It is, 
in fact, the keeper of all that has gone before. 
Good or evil, helpful or harmful, its influence is to 
(77) 
