GOSSYPIUM, cotton plant.
1 Gossypion, . . . . GR. KaTpaSa, . . . SANSK.
Kapas ka jhar, . HIND. Punji, . . . . TAAL. Carbasus, . . . . LAT. Patti chettu, . . TEL.
The genus Gossypium, belonging to the natural order Malvacem and its species, from the hair or wool which surrounds their seeds, are, next to food plants, the most important of the vegetable kingdom. Taking the population of British India and allied states at 250 millions, and allowing 10 pounds of raw cotton per man annually, the produce and yield of this plant annually exported may be taken at about 22 million cwt. There are several recognised species. De Candolle admits 13, and notices others. Two others were described by Dr. Roxburgh, one by Rceusch, and another in the Fiore de Senegambie. Of varieties, Mr. Bennett says that he knows more than one hundred kinds, and they appear to him never ending. Dr. Hoyle was of opinion that the species may be re,duced to G. Peruvianum (G. acurninatum), G. Indicum (G. berbaceum), G. arboreutn, and G. Barbadense. Baron Fred. von Mueller (1880y notices as species —G. arboreum, Linn., the tree cotton ; G. Bar badense, Linn., West India or Sea Island cotton, with its tall Egyptian variety called Bamia cotton ; G. hirsutum, L., upland or short-staple cotton ; G.. religiosum, Linn. (G. Peruvianum, Cavan.), ludney cotton, Peruvian or Brazilian cotton ; G. Taitense, Parlatore (G. religiosum, Banks and Solander), and G. tomentosum, .2Vutta/ (G. Sandvi sense, Parlatore, G. religiosuin, A. Gray).
There can be no doubt that the cotton plant is indigenous in America, and the species of the old world appear to be Indian and Chinese. Cloth
manufactured from cotton has been brought from the tombs of Peru ; and cotton seeds have been obtained by Rosselini from the monuments of Thebes. The Sanskrit name ICaxpatta has been taken into different tongues. The Hebrew word Karpas of the book of Esther (i. 6) and the Latin Carbasus are derived from it ; and the Karpasus mentioned in the Periplus of Arrian has been rendered by Dr. Vincent fine nmslin. Pliny (lib. xix. c. 1) mentions the cultivation in Upper Egypt of a small shrub, called by some Gossypion, by others Xylou, bearing fruit like a nut, from the interior of which a kind of wool is produced. The s.pecies of the cotton plant grow in the warm tropical regions of America and Asia, but they are likewise extra-tropical ; and Baron Huuaboldt mentions having seen it growing at 5500 feet in 3Iexico, and 9000 feet of elevation in the equinoctial Andes. It is largely grown in China. Dr. Boyle mentions that it is cultivated in small quantities at 4000 feet of elevation in 30° N. in the Himalaya ; and Dr. Stewart tells us that it is grown in many places all over the Panjab as a hot-weather crop, ripening up to Christmas, and that it is cultivated up to the Kashmir valley (5000 feet), but the quality does not appear first rate.—Rozb.• Dr. Stewart's I'. Pl. p. 27 ; Cleghorn, Report, ir. Ass.; Eng. Cyc.; Boyle, Prod. Res. of Ind.; Von Mneller.