58                      TRAVELS  Iğ   TRIMDAD.              [LetA.
fewer hands, fewer buildings, and less labourers.. The
soil of the south-east side of the Island is congenial to
the cultivation of it to a great extent ; it is moreover
very healthy, and, in my humble opinion, well adapted
for a White Settlement. I have seen some beautiful
samples of the cotton that grows here, which I pro-
nounce equal, if not superior to the texture of that
which grows on the Sea Islands.
Gossypium, or Cotton, is a genus of the polyandria
order, belonging to the monodelphia. class of plants,
and, in the natural method, ranking under the thirty-
seventh order, Columniferte. The calyx is double, the
exterior one trifid ; the capsule quadrilocular ; the seeds
wrapt up in cotton wool. There are four species, all of
them natives of warm cljmates :—1. The Htrbaceum,
or common herbaceum cotton, hath an herbacemn
smooth stalk, two feet high, branching upwards ; five
lobed smooth leaves ; and yellow flowers from the ends
to the branches, succeeded by roundish capsules full
of seeds and cotton.—2. The Hirsutum, or hairy Ame-
rican cotton, hath hairy stalks branching literally two
or three feet high ; palmated, three and five lobed
hairy leaves ; and yellow flowers, succeeded by large
oval pods furnished with seeds and cotton,—3. The
Barbadeuse, or Barbadoes shrubby cotton ; hath a
shrubby stalk branching four or five feet high, three-
lobed smooth leaves, gland ulous underneath, and yellow
flowers, succeeded by oval pods, containing seeds and
cotton.—4. The Arborecum, or tree cotton ; hath an up-
right woody perennial stalk, branching six or eight
feet high ; palmated, four or five lobed smooth leaves,
and yellow flowers, succeeded by oval pods filled with
cotton. The first three are annual, but the fourth j$
perennial both in root and stalk.   The culture of cotton.