WEST INDIES. 
CHAP. IV.] 
8? 
wool in general cultivation; and it is easily separa¬ 
ted from the seed by the common method, here¬ 
after to be described, I have been told that this 
species of the green-seed cotton is not sufficiently 
known to the planters in general, (being usually 
confounded with the former), or that probably it 
would be in high estimation. 
Both the species above-mentioned, though they 
produce pods at an early stage, when they are 
mere shrubs, will, if suffered to spread, grow into 
trees of considerable magnitude, and yield annual 
crops, according to the season, without any kind 
of cultivation. The blossoms put forth in succes¬ 
sion from October to January, and the pods begin 
to open fit for gathering from February to June. 
I come now to the 
Shrub Cotton, properly so called. The shrub 
itself very nearly resembles an European Corinth 
bush, and may be subdivided into several varieties, 
all of which however very nearly resemble each 
other.* These varieties (such of them at least as 
have come to my knowledge) are. 
* The flowers are composed of five large yellow leaves, each stain¬ 
ed at the bottom with a purple spot. They are beautiful, but devoid 
ot fragrance. The pistil is strong and large, surrounded at and near 
the top with a yellow farinaceous dust, which, when ripe, falls into 
the matrix of the pistil. This is likewise surrounded, when the petals 
of the flowers drop, with a capsular pod, supported by three trian¬ 
gular green leaves deeply jagged at their ends. The inclosed pod 
