COTTON-GRASS. 
grows to a considerable height, and has leaves of 
a bright green colour, marked with brownish 
veins, and each divided into five lobes. The 
flowers have only one petal in five segments, with 
a short tube, and are of a pale-yellow colour, with 
five red spots at the bottom. The cotton pods 
are of somewhat triangular shape, and have each 
three cells. These, when ripe, burst open, and 
disclose their snow-white or yellowish contents, 
in the midst of which are contained the seeds, in 
shape somewhat resembling those of grapes. The 
fibres of cotton are extremely fine, delicate and 
flexile. When examined by the microscope, they 
are found to be somewhat flat, and two-edged or 
triangular. ‘Their direction is not straight, but 
contorted, so that the locks can be extended or 
drawn out without doing violence to the fibres. 
These threads are finely toothed, which explains 
the cause of their adhering together with greater 
facility than those of bombax and several apo- 
cynez, which are destitute of teeth, and which 
cannot be spun into thread without an admix- 
ture of cotton. In the southern states of the 
American Union, the cotton cultivated is distin- 
guished into three kinds: the nankeen cotton, so 
called from its colour, the green seed cotton, pro- 
ducing white cotton with green seeds, and the 
black seed cotton. The two first kinds grow in the 
middle and upper country, and are called short 
staple cotton; the last is cultivated in the lower 
country, near the sea, and on the isles near the 
shore, and produces cotton of a fine, white, silky 
appearance, very strong, and of a long staple. 
Cotton was found indigenous in America. 
There are two machines for cleansing cotton 
from the seeds; these are, the roller-gin and the 
saw-gin. ‘The essential parts of the first are two 
small cylinders, revolving in contact, or nearly 
so. The cotton is drawn between the rollers, 
while the size of the seeds prevents them from 
passing. The saw-gin, invented by Mr. Whitney, 
is used for the black-seed cotton, the seeds of 
which adhere too strongly to be separated by the 
other method, It is a receiver, having one side 
covered with strong parallel wires, about an 
eighth of an inch apart. Between these wires 
pass a number of circular saws, revolving on a 
common axis. The cotton is entangled in the 
teeth of the saws, and drawn out through the 
grating, while the seeds are prevented by their 
size, from passing. The cotton thus extricated 
is swept from the saws bya revolving cylindrical 
brush, and the seeds fall out at the bottom of the 
receiver. 
COTTON-GRASS, — botanically Eriophorum. 
A genus of hardy, herbaceous, grassy -looking, 
perennial-rooted plants, of the cyperaceous or 
sedge tribe. Their botanical name signifies 
“ wool-bearer;” and both this and the popular 
name allude to a profuse woolly accompaniment 
of their seeds. The slender and the headed 
species, #. gracile and H. capitatum, the former 
about 6 inches high, and flowering in July 
Us 
COTTON THISTLE. 881 
and August, and the latter about 10 inches 
high, and flowering in August and September, 
grows wild on the mountains of Scotland; the 
downy species, /. pubescens, flowering from May 
till July, and possessing a handsome appearance, 
grows wild in the bogs of England; the many- 
spiked and the narrow-leaved species, L. polysta- 
chyon and LH. angustifolium, the former flowering 
in June and July, and the latter flowering in 
April, grow wild in the bogs of both Scotland and 
England; the sheathed or hare’s-tail species, Z. 
vaginatum, flowering in March and April, grows 
wild on the moorish grounds of Britain; and the 
Virginian species, &. virginicum, flowering from 
May till August, was introduced, about a quarter 
of a century ago, from North America. All these 
species excepting the two Scottish ones, usually 
attain a height of about 12 or 14 inches. Two 
other species have been scientifically described. 
The two early-flowering species, #. angustifo- 
lium and EL. vaginatum, afford sheep and depas- 
tured cattle a little nourishment in early spring, 
or previous to the growth of sufficient herbage of 
the grasses; but though eaten by these animals, 
they are not well relished, and contain a very 
small amount of nutritive matter relatively to 
their whole bulk. On bog soil, in the Woburn 
experiments, H. angustifoliwm yielded per acre 
8,167 lbs. of entire produce, and 319 lbs. of nutri- 
tive matter, and Z. vaginatum yielded 6,806 lbs. 
of entire produce, and 212 lbs. of nutritive mat- 
ter. These two species, if cultivated or at least 
freely propagated on such high boggy ground as 
is useless for any other purpose and would not 
repay the costs of reclamation, might probably 
yield profitable crops of their cottony or woolly 
matter for the manufacture of yarn and cloth. 
About 16 or 17 years ago, some specimens of 
stocking-yarn and of remarkably firm and beau- 
tiful russet cloth were manufactured, under the 
direction of Mr. Helliwell of Greenhurst-Hey, 
near Todmorden, from the wool of cotton-grasses 
grown on his estate; and a calculation was at the 
same time made that this wool might, without 
cultivation, be obtained from many parts of Stans- 
field Common, in the vicinity of Todmorden, at 
the cost of not more than 2d. or 3d. per pound, 
and in quantity of two or three hundredweights 
per acre. 
COTTON THISTLE,—botanically Onopordum. 
A genus of hardy, herbaceous plants, of the thistle 
division of the composite order. The common 
species, Onopordum Acanthium, is a large and 
handsome biennial British weed of gravelly banks, 
and gravelly wastes, and sometimes of rich lands 
and even of dunghills. Its leaves are produced 
in the first year ; they are numerous, large, downy, 
prickly, and sinuated; and they spread on the 
ground, and continue throughout the winter. 
Its stem rises in spring from among the middle 
of the leaves; it usually, on good soil, attains a 
height of about six feet ; and it ramifies upward 
into many branches, which have leafy borders or 
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