24 
less hairy than most Indian specimens, though clothed with 
a number of short hairs. Mr. Fortune states, in a note with 
some specimens that he sent to Dr. Lindley, from China, 
that the white-coloured and the nankeen-coloured cotton 
are yielded by the same species and even by the same plant, 
and that the two kinds are separated by the Chinese. 
Besides India and China, this species is cultivated in 
Persia, Syria, Asia Minor, and the Islands of the Mediter- 
ranean, as well as in the north of Africa and the south of 
Europe. The kind yielding the nankeen-coloured cotton in 
Malta is probably a variety.” Fortune, in his Travels,* 
makes the following statement regarding the cotton plant 
of China: “The Chinese or Nanking cotton plant is the 
Gossypium herhaceum of botanists, and the ‘ Mie ^uha’ of 
the northern Chinese. It is a branching annual, growing 
from one to three or four feet in height, according to the 
richness of the soil, and flowering from August to October. 
.... The yellow cotton, from which the beautiful Nanking 
cloth is manufactured, is called ‘ Tze mie wha ’ bv the 
Chinese, and differs but slightly in its structure and general 
appearance from the kind just noticed. I have often com- 
pared them in the cotton fields where they were growing, 
and although the yellow variety has a more stunted habit 
than the other, it has no characters which constitute a 
distinct species. It is merely an accidental variety, and 
although its seeds may generally produce the same kind, 
they doubtless frequently yield the white variety, and vice 
versa. Hence specimens of the yellow cotton are frequently 
found growing amongst the white in the immediate vicinity 
of Shanghai ; and again a few miles northward, in the fields 
near the city of Poushan, on the banks of the Yang-tse- 
Kiang, where the yellow cotton abounds, I have often 
gathered specimens of the white variety.” The opinion 
here expressed is confirmed by Parlatore,j* who affirms, 
Yisits to the Tea Countries of China, vol. I., p. 199. 
t Le Specie dei Cotoni, Firenze, 1866. 
