Gossypium herbaceum seed
LATIN NAME: Gossypium herbaceum
COMMON NAME: Cotton
The cotton raises its large, cream-yellow, hibiscus-like flowers and the round, green, hairy capsules, and the whole plant stands in the upright, branching clumps. The upright, branching, warm-season shrubby plant carries the large, lobed, palm-shaped leaves and the large, cream-yellow, hibiscus-like flowers with the dark-red centres through the warm season, one of the fine, bold sights of the warm garden, drawing the bees, to be followed by the round, green, hairy capsules which split open to show the fine, white, fluffy fibres around the dark seeds. The fibres have a very long record as the fine, white, fluffy fibres of the old workshops, and the plant is a fine, historic presence of the warm garden. It is a plant of the open, sunny, deep, rich, moist, well-drained ground.
Scientific Research & Plant Biotechnology
The cotton is a historic subject of the plant science, and the hairy capsules keep showing up in the work on the fibre plants. The way the round, green, hairy capsules split open to show the fine, white, fluffy fibres around the dark seeds has been studied at length, and it keeps appearing in the studies of the fibre plants, the fluffy fibres and the members of the mallow family. The lobed leaves and the branching habit have also made it a fine study plant, and the cotton is a regular subject of the work on the hairy capsules of the warm world.
Ecological & Economic Value & Wide Applications
The cotton is a fine, bold plant of the warm garden and the study collection. The large, cream-yellow, hibiscus-like flowers with the dark-red centres open through the warm season, one of the fine, bold sights of the warm garden, drawing the bees, and the fine, white, fluffy fibres around the dark seeds have a very long record as the fine, white, fluffy fibres of the old workshops, the fibres coming to the cloths, the threads and the fillings of the old houses, to be followed by the round, green, hairy capsules. It is one of the fine choices for the warm garden, the fibre patch and the study collection, and it has been written up in the agricultural and the botanical papers for the fluffy fibres and the very long history. It is a fine, bold plant of the open, sunny, deep, rich, moist, well-drained garden.
Give the young plants the deep, rich, moist bed, and the fluffy fibres will come in the first warm season.
To grow the cotton from seed, sow the small, black seeds over the surface of the deep pot of fine, gritty soil, without covering them, keep the pot in a warm, bright spot and water gently, then set the young plants out in the open ground. The seedlings are up within a week or two and grow on fast. With the sun and the deep, rich, moist, well-drained ground, the fluffy fibres will come in the first warm season.
This and other species of Gossypium are the sources of the eminently useful cotton fibre. The rootbark once gained notoriety as a powerful abortifacient, particularly in the southern United States. Contains gossypol, which research has revealed has important anti-parasitic and antiviral effects, and has shown promise as a male anti-fertility drug in studies conducted in China by the World Health Organization. Can be grown for interest as a potplant in a bright window or greenhouse. Tender biennial or triennial.