COLTIVAZIONE DFf. COTONE 166
   been sold in our kingdom, and which, even at the present moment, are manufactured there, and are reco    The bota ni cai individuality of this species of Gossypium is the least subject to inistakcs. As I observed above, the plant of Linnceus is certainly that of Blackwell and of Ca-vanilles, butit cannot be asserted with equal certainty that it is always identical with the Gossyvium herbaceum of se-veral other authors. \Ye find, in truth, that Desfontaines eays that he had observed it to be perennial in Algiers; and Lasterye says that he had seen it growing in Spain to the height of ten feet, and having the circumference of tw o feet. It would appear, however, that the Spanish plant belongs to a totally different species, which Lasterye biniseli' had confounded with the Gossyinum indicum, likewise descri-bed as a species cultivated in Spain, and of which he gives an exact drawing. It Tiìust be admitted, however, that, when we consult his book, he treated of cottons rather from the politico-economical and commercial point of view than as a botanist. He says, for example, with reference to Spanish cottons, that he coubl easily gather in the same field different disti net species, but he does not at ali stopp to describe them by their botanical character. Uncertain beyond auy-thing else, amongst the various points treated of by the author, is the character of the glantls beneath the leaves, which, after reiterateti observation, we find varying in uuui-ber and in position in this as well as in the other species of the genus. We will not say the same of the forni of the leaves, and espeeially of the forni of their lobes, which remai n unchanged. We agree, likewise, with M. M. E olir and Lasterye, that, to effect an intelligible classifìcation of the numerous species of this geuus, it would be necessary to take into account the characters derived from the figure, from the colour, from the downyness of the seeds, from the fact of their either adhering or remaiuing free and bare. Thus we can easily prononnee the Gossypium herbaceum to be different from the Gossypium indicum just mentioned, by the seeds in this latter being extremely black, and quite