The Wild and Cultivated Cotton Plants of the World A Revision of the Genus Gossypium

Abstract

SINCE the appearance, in 1877–8,, of Todaro's classic monograph on the genus Gossypium, no serious attempt has been made to deal systematically with the botany of the plants that provide the world's supply of cotton. Todaro's work—at once the first and last of any practical utility—owes its value to the fact that he worked for the most part with living plants grown by him from seed received from many parts of the world; the success this method met with justifies the dictum of De Candolle in his “Prodtomus” when, speaking of this genus, he says, “Hic species a Botanicis admissas recenseam, monens tamen hoc genus monographiae accuratae et ex vivo elaboratae maxime egere.” (The italics are not in the original.) Todaro's work requires only to be continued and extended, not to be corrected.

The Wild and Cultivated Cotton Plants of the World. A Revision of the Genus Gossypium.

By Sir G. Watt. Pp. xiv + 406. (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1907.) Price 30s. net.