by a too constant repetition of the same kind of crop. A similar deterioration formerly took place in the West Indies, and to so great an extent, as to lead to the almost total discontinu- ance of the cultivation of cotton, which, as in the instance of the African islands, was sue- ceeded by sugar, much to the profit of the cultivators. It seems probable, that if the cultiva- tion of cotton was resumed in the West Indies from seed carried either from this country or the Mauritius, that those islands in which the produce of the sugar cane is beginning, from long culture, to deteriorate, might be much more profitably devoted to the cultivation of cotton. In Malta, Spain and Sicily, in all of which places cotton is cultivated to a considerable extent: much attention is given to frequent changes of seed, each supplying itself from one or other, of the other two. If similar attention was bestowed in India to such interchange of seed between remote districts, there can scarcely be a doubt, it appears to me, that all would benefit. The cultivators of Bourbon and American cottons will do well to bear in mind the examples of the West Indies and the Mauritius, and not only attend to the occasional renewal of their stock of seed from the original source, but also to refresh the lands under cultivation every few years, by taking not one, but a succession of crops of different kinds off those tracts which have been long under cotton cultivation with only short intervals of rest. The other two varieties of G. Barbadense here figured, the long and short stapled kinds, or " Sea Islands" and " Up- lands," as they are called, are derived from the same stock as the Bourbon, and were with much difficulty introduced into North America owing to the shortness of the summer season. The former indeed could not be established until the fortunate occurrence of a very mild winter permitted the roots to live through it, and produce an early crop of fresh shoots in the spring. These bore and ripened a crop, the seed of which was found sufficiently hardy to resist the cold of spring, and matured a crop of excellent cotton in the course of the succeeding autumn.
The produce was a variety intermediate between the Pernambuco and Barbadoes, or Bour- bon, cottons ; having the long staple, smooth black seed, and 5-lobed leaves of the former, with the free or detached seed of the latter. The peculiar and very superior qualities of this kind, are attributed to its growing in a soil highly calcarious, and strongly impregnated with salt, aided by the influence of a " saline atmosphere." To this last, though much dwelt upon by American writers, I feel disposed to attribute much less importance than to the character of the soil in which it grows. All attempts, so far as I have yet been able to learn, to introduce this kind into India have failed, the pods are said to be blighted in the bud, and the few that attain maturity are generally more or less injured by the attacks of caterpillars, such I have invariably found to be the case in all my attempts to raise it. The Egyptian cotton which in that country partakes largely of the valuable properties of this kind, is supposed to have been derived from the Sea Island stock ; however, judging from some that I had sown in my garden, it. has either got mixed with the short stapled sort, or is in course of transition into it. The latter I rather suspect to be the case, but whether or not, it is most certain that, from a quantity of Egyptian seed sown in Madras both kinds were produced, and having the distinctive characters of each strongly marked ; that produced from smooth seeds according in every particular with the produce of Sea Island seed received direct from America, even to its liability to attacks of in- sects and consequent blight of the young pods; while that from rough downy seed equally cor- responded with the green seed, or " Uplands" growing on the same plot of ground. The fact here stated is an interesting one, and one which it is my intention still further to investigate so soon as I can procure a fresh supply of seed direct from Egypt, for that from which my plants were raised was not such, but saved in Madras, from plants however, raised from seed received direct from that country.
Respecting the origin of the Uplands variety, and the period of its introduction into North America, I am not so well informed, but I have no hesitation in considering it another variety of G. Barbadense, from which in fact it scarcely differs except in the much greater size of the pods, the shorter and stronger staple of its wool, the usually 5-lobed leaves, and the seeds more or less clothed with down. This last is a mark of very minor importance, as it is now known, a single generation may change the character of the seed from smooth to downy : those of the Bourbon cotton, are generally described as black and smooth, yet I have scarcely ever met with one that was not more or less downy, and often not less so, than the American green seed. This (Uplands) variety thrives well in India, producing abundance of very large pods, so large indeed that of a number I weighed, the contents rarely fell short of 70 grains, and some, picked ones, even exceeded 100, while those from the indigenous
