COLTIVAZIONE DFf. COTONE
   166
   -A-^^EITJDIX C.
   ON THE COTTONS CULTIVATED IN ITALY.
   We have received cottons, under different names, from the various Italian provinces, but it seems to 119 that ali tbose at present cultivated in Italy belong only to two speci 08, tbe Gossypium herbaceum and tbe Gossypium Siamense; the last having two varieties, of which one produces white cotton and the other yellow cotton. It is most important that the cuitivators should know the species and the varieties which they cultivate, and that they should be ac-quainted with their denomination. Not only in Italy, but in ali other places, there exists, in the nomenclature of cottons, the greatest confusion. It is strange to see how this plant, productive of such utility, has hitherto been so ill-studied by the botanista. De Candolle, in enumerating thirteen species, remarks that ali of them are uncertain, and that it would b^ necessaiy for them to be studied afresh (Sj)ecies omnes incertar. Hìc species a Botanicis admissas recenseam moncns tamen hoc genus monographiae accuratae, et ex vivo elaboratae maxime egere), Buchanan Hamilton admits two species, Wright three, Forbes Royle four, Linnaeus five, Lamark and Roxburgh eight, Poiret twelve, Rohr thirty-four, and others even a greater number.
   Amongst Italian writers, Tenore is the only one wlio has well described our cottons, and with the view of esta-blishing a common nomenclature for ali Italy, we believe that it is worth while to quote part of his memoir, read before the Koyal Institute of Encouragement of Naples, in 1838, and to reproduce, in fignres, the two species which we cultivate in Italy (see tables 1 and 12).
   Of the Herbaceous Cotton, which is exactly represen-ted in the tables of Blackwell and of Cavanilles (tliss. t. 162, f. 2), Tenore discoures in the following fashion:
   « This plant grows commonly to the height of one or two feet.; its root strikes down to about half a foot in length, the stem straight, cylindrical, smooth, hard, ligneous, reddish,