10 
BOTANICAL ANALYSIS. 
arborescent. The cotton of the hills and bottoms is short- 
stapled ; that of the sea islands is long stapled. 
As more than nine-teuths of the cotton of the country 
belongs to the herbaceous species, I shall content myself by 
describing that alone, referring the reader to larger works 
for scientific details concerning the other species. 
Gossypium herbaceum. Botanical characters. Calyx 
cup-shaped, obtusely 5-toothed, surrounded by a 3-parted 
involucel, called the form, and sometimes the square. Leaves 
5-lobed, mucronate, large as a small hand. Stem smooth, 
herbaceous ; woody fibre white, spongy, and brittle, covered 
by a greenish-brown epidermis, very tenacious. 
The branches are long and jointed, bearing at the joints 
bolls of various sizes. 
Boot tapering, penetrating deep into the ground. For 
this reason the plant is less affected by drought than and 
other plant of the country. 
Corolla cup-shaped, polypetalous, two or three inches 
long; resembles the okra blossom, only that it is never 
mucb expanded. It is white or cream-colored on the first 
day till the afternoon, when it changes gradually to a red 
«olor, closing up and twisting over the germ or young boll; 
a,nd in a day or two drops off, leaving the boll surrounded 
by the calyx. 
The boll, or egg-shaped capsule, has fi-om 3 to 5 cells, 
many-seeded; seeds large and gTeen, surrounded by a 
tomentose wool. This tomentose wool is the cotton which 
serves to clothe the nations of the earth. 
From this description, it is evident to any one ac- 
quainted with the first lessons in botany, that cotton is 
-simply a fruit. It is entitled to the name of fi-uit, as de- 
servedly as an apple or a peach. The only difference is this : 
The apple or the peach is designed for food ; the cotton is 
