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Select Plants fo r Industrial Culture and
United States supplied about three-fonrths. The importations of
raw cotton into the United Kingdom in 1884 amounted to 15^ million
cwt., its value being £44,000,000 ; about two-thirds of this came
from the United States. In 1886 the import was 15,312,900 cwt.,
a t a then value of £38,128,110; in 1889 it was 17,298,000 cwt.
valued at £45,642,000 ; cotton-seeds imported th a t year into Britain
came to 277,391 tons, valued £1,906,000. The greater part of the
cotton produced in the world is worked up in the United Kingdom,
where the annual consumption has increased from about 1,014,000
bales (of 400 lbs. each) in the period 1836-1840 to an average of
3,117,000 bales for the period 1876-1880, and to 3,700,000 bales
since. After the United Kingdom, says the “ Bulletin du Musée
commercial,” comes tlie European Continent ; taken as whole tlie
consumption has there increased during the same period from 521,000
to 3,400,000 bales. The third place is held by the United States,
which surpasses all other countries in the rate of increase, as the use
for manufacture there rose from 242,000 bales in 1840 to 2,137,000
bales in 1884-85 ( “ Journ. of the Soc. of Arts,” 1890). The primary
advantages of this important culture are : a return in a few months,
comparatively easy, field-operations, simple and not laborious process
of collecting the crop, and requirement of but little care in the use
of the gin-machine in finally preparing the raw material for the
market, the woolly covering of the seeds constituting the cotton of
commerce. The oil obtained by pressure from the seeds is useful for
various technic purposes, and the oil-cake can be utilised like most
substances of a similar kind as a very fattening stable-food. This oil
can even be used quite well in domestic cookery [Colonel O. Nelson].
Crushed cotton-seed cake without admixture is eaten by cattle aud
sheep with avidity. Of cottonseeds 212,000 tons were introduced
into Great Britain in 1884, valued a t £1,580,000, mostly from
Egypt. Sea-Island cotton was raised to great perfection in the
northern parts of Victoria fully twenty-five years ago from seeds
extensively distributed by the writer ; but the want of cheap labour
has hitherto militated against the extensive cultivation of tliis crop,
as well as th a t of tea and many other industrial plants. Cotton
having been reared far away from tlie influence of the sea-air, it
would be worthy of attempts, to naturalise various kinds of cotton
in the oases of our deserts, irrespective of regular culture. Our
native Gossypiums of the interior produce no fibre worth collecting.
Cotton-plants have a predilection for gently undulating or
sloping ground, with light soil and a moderate supply of moisture.
In the most favorable climes, such as th a t of Fiji, cotton produces
flowers and fruit throughout the year, but the principal ripening
falls in the dry season. From two hundred to three hundred plants
or more can be placed on an acre. As many as seven hundred bolls-
have been gathered from a single plant a t one time, twelve to
twenty capsules yielding an ounce of mercantile cotton. Weeding
is rendered less onerous by the vigorous growth of the plants.
Cotton comes in well for rotation with other crops. Major Clarke
has ascertained, th a t crossing cannot he effected between the oriental
. and occidental kinds of cotton. A high summer-temperature_ is
needed for a prolific cotton-harvest. Intense heat, under which
even maize will suffer, does not injuriously affect cotton, provided
the atmosphere is not dry in the extreme. The soil should not he
wet, hut of a kind th a t naturally absorbs and retains humidity,
without over-saturation. In arid regions it is necessary to irrigate
the cotton-plant. Heavy rains a t the ripening period are injurious,
if not destructive, to the cotton-crop. Dry years produce the best
returns, yet aqueous vapor in the air is necessary for the best yield.
In colder localities the bolls or capsules continue to ripen, after
night-frosts prevent the formation of new ones. Porous soils, re sting
on limestones and metamorphic rocks, are eminently adapted
for cotton-culture. The canehrake-soil of the North-American
cotton-regions absorbs ammonia to a prodigious extent.
G o u r lie a d e c o r tio a n s , Gillies.
The Chañar of Argentina and Chili. Bears sweet pleasant fruits,
and yields a tough valuable wood [Dr. Lorentz]. As an orchard-
tree hitherto insignificant, hut it may improve perhaps under cultural
G r a c i l a r i a lic h e n o id e s , Greville.
South-Asia, North-Eastern Australia. The “ Agar-Agar.” An
edible seaweed, the mucilage of which has come into preferential
use to rear bacteria for microscopic observation. Doubtless, seaweeds
could readily in portable aquaria be transferred from one
coast to others. The alg above mentioned can be used medicinally
instead of caragalieen.
G r e v iU e a a n n u li f e r a , F. v. Mueller.
West-Australia. A ta ll bush or small tree, with highly ornamental
flowers. The seeds are comparatively large, of almond-taste,
and the fruits produced copiously. The shrub will live in absolute
desert-sands, where the other Australian proteaceous Nut-tree,
Brabejum (Maodamia) ternifolium, could not exist. Well may we
plead, th a t enlightened statesmanship should lastingly preserve at
least on a few chosen spots also in South-Western Australia all the
splendid Grevilleas and hundreds of other gay or remarkable plants,
quite peculiar to th a t part of the world, where the endemism of vegetation
is more singularly and strongly concentrated than anywhere
else on the globe, unless in South-Africa and California ; so th a t
future generations may also yet be able, to contemplate at least the
local remnants of a world of plants as charming as it is diversified
and peculiar, before many of its constituents succumb by aggress of
herds and flocks altogether.
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