GOSSYPIUM  HERBACEUM. 
405 
civilized  nation  upon  the  globe,  which  does  not,  more  or  less, 
feel  its  influence.  It  has  been  stated,  and  I  doubt  not  truly, 
that  this  crop  in  its  production,  manufacture,  and  distribution, 
employs  more  capital  than  all  the  other  agricultural  staples  of 
our  country  combined,  and  what  is  perhaps  of  greater  moment 
than  all  this,  it  determines  the  destiny  of  more  than  four  millions 
of  human  beings  in  our  own  country  alone,  riveting  immoveably 
the  chain  which  binds  the  slave  to  his  task  in  the  cotton-field. 
But  there  is  another  view  of  this  subject  which  is  more  to  my 
purpose  now,  viz : — its  chemical  characteristics,  as  well  as  the 
fitness  of  the  refuse  seed  and  root  for  a  wider  and  more  useful 
application  in  medicine  and  the  arts.  The  lint  has,  within  a  few 
years  past,  been  introduced  into  the  officinal  list  of  our  Materia 
Medica,  and  used  as  an  application  to  recent  burns  and  scalds, 
and  for  the  preparation  of  collodion.  The  other  portions  of  the 
plant  are  as  yet  non-officinal.  With  the  officinal  lint  I  had  de- 
signed having  nothing  to  do,  at  least  as  its  chemical  and  medical 
properties  are  concerned,  but  the  interest  which  it  has  for  me, 
as  the  staple  agricultural  product  of  my  native  State,  has  prompt- 
ed me  to  speak  thus  briefly  of  it. 
The  root  of  the  cotton  plant  sends  down  a  main  spindle  to  a 
depth  of  from  12  to  24  inches;  from  this  branch  off  in  all  direc- 
tions numerous  lateral  rootlets,  being  large  and  long  near  the 
surface  of  the  soil,  smaller  and  shorter  as  they  descend,  giving 
the  entire  root  the  form  of  an  inverted  cone.  In  color,  the  cor- 
tical portion  is  of  a  bright  yellowish  brown,  the  ligneous  a  light 
yellow.     Taste  In  the  dry  state  the  first  impression  is  very 
slightly  sweet,  otherwise  very  much  that  of  the  Radix  Glycyr- 
rhiza,  subsequently  a  decided  astringency,  unaccompanied  by 
either  bitterness  or  acrimony. 
With  one  exception,  which  I  shall  presently  notice,  no  practi- 
cal application  of  this  root  has  come  under  my  observation  or 
within  the  limits  of  my  reading.  Extensive  as  its  production  is, 
so  far  from  its  answering  any  useful  purpose  to  the  planter,  he 
considers  it  rather  an  encumbrance  to  the  free  tillage  of  the  soil, 
not  in  his  estimation  answering  any  good  end  worth  counting 
upon  as  a  fertilizer. 
The  exception  to  which  I  have  referred,  is  based  upon  an  article 
from  the  pen  of  Dr.  Bouchelle,  of  Mississippi,  contributed  to  the 
