experiments I have made that the more frequently this cross-
breeding takes place, the more easy (within certain limits) is it
to extend it until cultivation has so completely changed the
character of the plant that it bears very little resemblance to
its original stock. There is nothing growing wild like our
cabbages, turnips, and cauliflowers; nor even like our carrots,
celery, and asparagus. Where are the originals of our wheat,
barley, rye, beans, and peas? Many of these appear to be so
completely transformed by cultivation that we don't know where to
look for the parent stocks from which they originated. But I am
forgetting cotton altogether, yet beg to refer to the preceding
paragraph to show how much is owing to careful cultivation, and
trust that it may not be without its use if my letter induces your
friends to make the experiments here suggested, even though their
first attempts are unsuccessful.

This letter was translated into Spanish and circulated in Peru,
but with what success I do not know. It was also published in the
"Gardener's Chronicle," and led to a reply from Dr. Royle, which
occasioned the following letter.

* * * * *

_August 14th_, 1845.

To the Editor of the "Gardener's Chronicle."

I am very glad that my letter and your remarks on the improvement
of cotton in India have attracted the attention of so able a
correspondent as G. F. R. (Dr. Royle), who appears to be
conversant with a good deal of what has been attempted there. No
doubt there are, as he states, great diversities of soil and
climate in so extensive a country as India; and if so, although
there may be some which are not adapted to the growth of either
the _Gossypium Barbadense_ or the _Gossypium Peruvianum_, there
must be both soil and climate suited to them in various localities
in that country.

My chief reason for suspecting that the injury arises from the new
kinds hybridizing with the indigenous cotton, is, that very good
cotton has been grown from both varieties in the first generation,
but when the seed from this first crop is sown again, the quality
always deteriorates (at least all the gentlemen say so with whom I
have conversed on this subject). I have a sample of Indian-grown
cotton of excellent quality from Pernambuco seed, worth twice as
much as the best Surat cotton I ever saw; but I cannot learn that
anything deserving the name of aught but a sample was ever
obtained. We hear of no increase in the quantity