e
cultivation of cotton in Egypt, and now the position attained by this
country is only outdistanced by the United States and India.

=The Botany of Cotton.=--Botanists tell us that the vegetable kingdom is
primarily divided into three great classes--viz., (1) Dicotyledons; (2)
Monocotyledons; and (3) Acotyledons.

Now these names solely refer to the nature and form of the seeds
produced by the plants, and by the first it is understood that a single
seed is divisible into two seed lobes in developing. In the case of the
second, the seed is formed only of one lobe, and in the third the seed
is wanting as a cotyledon, but the method of propagation is carried on
by what are called spores. We have examples of the last-named class in
the ferns, lycopods and horsetail plants. The first two of the
above-named classes have been well called Seed plants. These are again
broken up into divisions, to which the name Natural Orders has been
given. Most of us know, as the following are examined, Anemone,
Buttercup, Marsh Marigold, Globe Flower, and Larkspur, that they have
the same general structural arrangement, but in many particulars they
differ. Thus these natural orders are again subdivided into genera, and
a still further subdivision into species is made.

The Cotton plant is put in the genus _Gossypium_, which is one falling
into the natural order _Malvacae_, and which is one of a very large
number forming an important division of the dicotyledons where the
stamens are found to be inserted below the pistil, and where the corolla
is composed of free separate petals, and where the plant has a flower
bearing both calyx and corolla. So far as numbers are concerned, the
Malvacae cannot be said to be important, but few genera being known to
fall into this order. Three are familiar at least--viz., the Marsh
Mallow, which was formerly used a great deal in making ointment; the
Musk Mallow, and the Tree Mallow. The most important genus in this order
is the Gossypium. This name was given to the Cotton plant by Pliny,
though the reasons for so doing are not clear. Very many species are
known to exist at the present time, and this is not to be wondered at,
when the area in which the plant is cultivated is so vast, and coupled
with the fact that the plant is susceptible to the slightest change and
"sports" most readily.

Differences of soil, climate, position with regard to the sea board, and
variations in the method of cultivation cou