Abstract

The production of a cross between the American and Asiatic cottons, has been receiving the attention of various breeders in the world, and there was a time when there was no subject on which greater diversity of opinion existed than the possibility of this cross within the genus. Major Trevor Clarke (1870) held that the hybridization between these was not possible, while Gammie (1903) is mentioned as having successfully crossed G. hirsu- tum and G. roscum, G. hirsutum and G. obtusifolium, and probably these crosses are now lost. Zaitzev (1925) of Turkishtan station produced hybrids between G. hirsutum and G. herbaceum, but unfortunately the first generation did not produce any fruit due to sterility of pollen, although the plants produced a large number of flowers. Denham (1924) in his cyto- logical studies in cotton, offers an explanation to this unsolved difficulty, and ventures a solution by way of finding out a diploid mutant of the Indian cotton. It will not be out of place to quote a few lines of his work.

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