THE FLOWER AND THE FKUIT. 
11 
designed for clothing. A fully developed apple and a 
fully developed cotton boll are homologous. The one is a 
pome, the other a capsule. The one consists of a pericarp 
or rind, pulp, and seed ; so does the other. The pulp of 
the one is good to eat ; the pulp of the other is good to 
wear. All fruit is a developed germ — the base of a pistil. 
In its origin, progress, and maturity, cotton obeys the law 
of fruit development as rigidly as any product of tree or 
shrub. 
By reference to plates Nos. 1 and 2, the reader may 
have a fair view of the cotton plant and its fruit. 
Plate 1 shows the cream-colored corolla on its first 
appearance, emerging above the form. Below this, on the 
left hand, is a green boll. On the right, about the middle 
of the plate, is a boll opening; and immediately below 
this is a folly expanded boll — the pericarp remaining .after 
the cotton has been picked out. 
Plate 2 sliows, at the top, the blossom closing up after 
the change from a white to a pink color ; at the bottom, a 
fully expanded boll — the pericarp concealed, and the cot- 
ton ready for picking. 
