no WONDERS OF THE TROPICAL FORESTS. 
onr forefathers, now ranks as the first of all the world- 
wide importations of England, 
There are many different species of the cotton-plant, 
herbaceous, shrubby, and arboreal. Their original birth- 
place is the tropical zone, where they are found growing 
wild in all parts of the world ; but the herbaceous species 
stOl thrive under a mean temperature of from 60" to 
64" F., and are capable of being cultivated with advantage 
as far as 40° or even 46" N- lat. The five-lobed leaves have 
a dark green colour, the llowers are yellow with a purple 
centre, and produce a pod al)out the size of a walnut, 
which, when ripe, bursts and exhibits to view the lleecy 
cotton in which the seeds are securely embedded. 
It is almost superfluous to mention that the United 
States is the first cotton-producing country in the world. 
The area suitable for cotton south of the thirty-sixth 
degree of latitude comprises more than 39,000,000 acres, 
of which less than one-sizth part is now devoted to the 
plant. The yield depends in part upon the length of the 
season, Seven months are required for an average crop, 
and the average periods in which the last killing frost of 
spring and the first killing frost of autumn occur are 
^larch 23 and October 26, Cotton is cultivated in large 
fields, and when the soil is superior, the plant rises to a 
height of six or eight feet, although in the richest cane- 
brake soil, exhausted by successive crops, it dwindles down 
to a height of three or four feet only. The aspect of a 
cotton-field is most pleasing in the autumn, when the dark- 
coloured foliage and bright yellow flowers, intermingling 
with the snow-white down of the pods when burst, pro- 
duce a charming contrast. At that time all hands are 
at work, for it is important to pluck as much as possible 
during the first hours of morning, since tlie heat of the 
sun injures the colour of the cotton, and the over-ripe 
capsules shed their contents upon the ground, or allow 
the wind to carry them away. 
The collected produce is immediately carried to the 
