(Sossnpium IjcrbrtCCUlU. Natural Order: Malvacece — Mallow Family. 
HIS plant is a native of the East Indies, or is, perhaps, 
indigenous to all tropical regions. It is now at least exten¬ 
sively grown in various tropical and semi-tropical countries 
for the product which it yields. It is an annual, growing, 
if left unpruned, some five feet high. Sown in spring, and 
tended with care during the summer months, it is harvested 
in autumn. The seeds are ensconced in the most delightful of beds, 
soft and white. When they are ripe the pods burst, and if left to 
nature, would eventually float out on the wide, wide world, till they 
had found a resting place in the soil, to become plants themselves; 
!o but man seizes their downy covering and applies it to his own use. 
Te flowers are a pale yellow, and are from two to three inches 
y\p- broad. The Nankin Cotton is similar to the common, except in the 
color of the fiber, which is yellow or tawny. The Gossypium Bar- 
badense, Barbadoes or Sea-Island cotton, grown in a narrow belt of our Southern 
States and adjacent islands, is unrivaled for length, softness and strength. 
A S some tall cliff, that lifts its awful form, 
^ Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the storm; 
Tho’ round its breast the rolling clouds are spread, 
Eternal sunshine settles on its head. —Goldsmith. 
T IVES of great men all remind us 
^ We can make our lives sublime, 
And, departing, leave behind us 
Footprints on the sands of time;— 
Footprints, that perhaps another, 
Sailing o’er life’s solemn main, 
A forlorn and shipwreck’d brother, 
Seeing, shall take heart again. 
— Longfellow. 
AH! greatness, thou art but a flattering dream, 
^ A wat’ry bubble, lighter than the air. —Tracy. 
RE AT souls by instinct to each other turn, 
Demand alliance and in friendship burn. 
—Addison. 
98 
TIGH stations tumult, but not bliss create; 
None think the great unhappy, but the great. 
A 
— Young. 
l 
^59 
