BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF CANADA. 
157 
an olden method of cleaning it, familiar to us in shirtings and sheetings, was pro- 
cured originally from the West Indies, and is. now cultivated with advantage in 
Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, 
North Carolina, Arkansas and Texas. 
The " long staple," or Sea-Island cotton, the finest in the world, is supposed 
to be a native of Persia. It commands in England double the price of any other im- 
ported cotton, and is of so silky a texture that the Cotton Manufacturers in Europe 
frequently combine sea-island cotton with silk, and so fine is the material, that it is 
rarely discovered. It is even and strong, and has a yellowish tinge, which in cot- 
ton, when natural, is a mark of extreme fineness. Its seeds are black, while most of 
the cotton of the Southern States is raised from the green seed variety. Having 
been found to thrive well on the low sandy islands lying along the coast between 
Charleston and Savannah, it thence derived its name of sea-island cotton. 
The quantity as well as the quality of cotton which each plant yields, is vari- 
able. The average produce per English acre is reckoned as varying from one 
hundred and fifty to two hundred and seventy pounds o^ picked cotton. 
The plant is propagated by seed. 
The cotton shrub in general lasts, in the Islands of the West Indies, about two 
or three years ; in India, Egypt and some other countries, from six to ten years. 
In the hottest countries it is perennial, and furnishes two crops a year ; in cool 
climates it is annual. The shrub itself very much resembles a currant bush in 
appearance, and has one feature in common with the orange, namely, that of exhib- 
iting on one stalk every possible stage of growth ; so that it is a common sight to 
seethe "blossoming," "forming" and "boiling," going forward at one and the- 
same time. 
Medical Properties of Cotton. 
Eventually cotton wool will, it is supposed, supersede many, if not all, of the' 
common remedies in the treatment of recent burns and scalds. It was first used 
with this intention in America. It relieves the pain, diminishes the inflammation, 
prevents vesication, and greatly hastens the cure. The part affected is reduced to 
an equable temperature, its effused liquids absorbed, and protection from the atmos- 
phere afforded by the application of thin and successive layers of cotton wool, and 
also, when the skin is not too much inflamed, by a bandage. But it is found often 
to do much harm by becoming consolidated over a visicated surface, thus mis- 
chievously acting as a mechanical irritant. However, such a result may be pre- 
vented by first dressing, with a piece of fine linen spread with simple ointment,, the 
part inflamed. 
In erysipelas it is recommended, and also as a dressing for blisters. Applied 
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