178 
COTTON-BEARTNG ARTEMISIAS. 
singular appearance if well trainetl and nailed. 
The best way to preserve one of the monster 
gourds is to cut a hole large enough to admit 
the hand and arm, and take out all the pulp 
and seeds, for if these are allowed to I'emain 
too long, the fruit rots or bursts, and is 
destroyed. 
COTTON-BEARING ARTEMISIAS. 
The Artemisia odoratissima, (writes M. 
Guyon,) yields a cottony product, which is 
used like tinder, and in appearance looks like 
a small ball of cotton about the size of a filbert ; 
generally several are produced on a plant. 
On dividing these balls through the middle, 
there is found at the centre a filiform abnormal 
prolongation, provided with bark, from which 
are produced small whitish filaments radiating 
to the circumference, the agglomeration of 
which constitutes the entire product. This I 
take to be only a morbid excrescence, a kind 
of scab. There is no cavity at its exterior ; 
but on the under surfiice, or rather at the 
point of junction with the plant on which it is 
produced, are windings (anfractuosites,) which 
are prolonged more or less in the interior, and 
where I have detected aiiymenopteron (insect) 
about an inch long. The species I found on 
the Artemina odoratisshna* has been exa- 
mined by M. Gruenee, who considers it as a 
new species of the genus Eurytoma. The 
Arabs know the produce we are speaking of 
under the name of Capo. They use it as an 
excellent tinder : it takes fire immediately, 
whatever the state of development may be in 
which it is found. This readiness to catch 
fire exists even in its embryo state.-j" As the 
plant which furnishes it is very plentiful in 
the country (Algeria), this tinder is abundant 
enough, which is fortunate for those inhabit- 
ants who have not the choice of other things. 
The following incident will explain the man- 
ner in which I became acquainted with its use 
in this respect : — I happened to be travelling 
in Algeria, with some Arabs who formed my 
guides. When any of them wanted to smoke, 
they alighted and stopped before the tufts of 
Artemisia. This manoeuvre by its frequency 
attracted my attention, and I perceived that it 
was to take some of the cottony substance pro- 
duced by the plant, which they used in striking 
the steel. This product o^ Artemisia odoratis- 
sima brings to mind that o{ Artemisia chinensis. 
I observe that the authors who have spoken 
of it consider it as a natural product, or a sort 
of down. Very likely the product of Arte- 
misia Moxa, or A. chinensis, has the same 
* The Shee of the Arabs : but they give the same 
name to many other plants of the same genus. 
t The inhabitants of south Spain use as tinder the 
leaves of Gonyza rupestris and G. saxatilis, after 
bruising them in their hands. 
origin as that of A. odoratissima; because, 
apart from the colour, there is a perfect iden- 
tity in the nature of the two products. 
Artemisia Moxa, or A. chhiensis, grow 
in a manner very similar to that in which the 
African Artemisia is found ; that is to say, in 
very high localities. 
The Artemisia vvlgaris of Linneeus, com- 
mon by our road sides, called Armoise in 
French, and Bijvoet in Flemish, appears from 
a statement by Professor Morren to be well 
known in Belgium, owing to its property of 
producing cotton, which is frequently used 
by the peasantry as tinder. At Liege the 
children amuse themselves in separating the 
leafy parts, which they form into a kind of 
packthread. The dry leaves are also some- 
times gathered and (in winter) bruised in the 
hands, by which process the down in which they 
abound is separated, and used for lighting the 
pipes, exactly as the Arabs use the fibrous 
parts of the leaves of Artemisia odoratissima. 
This property of the Artemisia, though not 
much noticed by botanical authors, is well 
known among the inhabitants of Liege, and 
the plant itself is generally spoken of as the 
" cotton plant." La order to ascertain what 
this cotton really was, Professor Morren had 
it prepared in his presence. He states : — 
" I was first shown the down as the leaf 
was rent or pulled to pieces. It is known 
that the leaves of the Artemisia are white on 
the under side ; and on a superficial inspec- 
tion of the process, one might think that by 
the tearing, or rather scalping of the leaves, 
the veins or tissue are divested of the paren- 
chyma, and that this net-work of veins or 
tissue worked together forms the cotton. It 
is well known, also, that the Indians in the 
same way denude the tissue of the banana 
trees, and manufacture various sorts of fabrics 
with it, such as mattresses, bolsters, mats, and 
the like. But having made a very minute 
inspection, I am inclined to think that the 
tissue of the Artemisia does not form a part 
of the cotton made from it. In order to ascer- 
tain the real nature of this substance, I em- 
ployed a microscope in examining a leaf pre- 
pared to that stage in which the cotton appears 
at the moment it is separated from the plant. 
This microscopic inspection led me to a very 
instructive study. The wadding-like tissue 
appears to be foi'med of long, slender, smooth, 
ribbon-like hairs, and of a breadth proportion- 
able to their thickness ; these hairs are also 
considerably long and transparent, running 
parallel with each other, but somewhat twisted 
and curved withal. In some points where 
the fibres of the skeleton of the leaf have been 
broken, the real veins are perceived, having a 
somewhat twisted columnar form, very regular, 
and rather broad in the fibre. These veins 
