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COTTON PLANT. 
cultivated in Malta, and in Sicily. In Europe this 
species of cotton is annual, but in some parts of 
Africa it is said to be perennial, and to form a 
moderate sized shrub. The usual height of the 
plant, in those countries where it is raised for com- 
mercial purposes, is about two feet ; the stem is 
hard, woody, and hairy on the upper part. The 
leaves, which are divided into five lobes, are re- 
markable for a green gland situated on the back. 
The peduncles issue from the axils of the leaves, 
and each bears a yellow flower, with a toothed 
calyx. 
Among the numerous productions of the vege- 
table kingdom there is not one, perhaps, that can 
exceed the cotton in point of general utility. A 
vast number of trees, shrubs, and herbs, are cal- 
culated to afford us nourishment ; but there are 
very few that furnish us with the materials for 
clothing. Among these few the cotton plant ought 
to be placed in the first rank. Hemp and flax, 
which are cultivated in the temperate and colder 
parts of Europe, are certainly of great service to 
mankind, and afford a maintenance to a number of 
people employed in the manufactory of their pro- 
duce ; but while these herbs require several long 
and laborious preparations to form their gummy 
bark into thread, the cotton offers to the inhabitants 
of both Indies a substance ready formed by Nature 
to their hands. The fineness of the thread, and the 
transcendant whiteness of this soft down, induced 
mankind to cultivate the plant, and the value of its 
