Ɛpsilon

From Asa Gray   12 January 1880

Herbarium of Harvard University, | Botanic Garden, Cambridge, Mass.

Jany 12 1880.

My Dear Darwin

So you want some cotton-seeds!1 I sent south for them, & here will be all you need, but you can have more. Two-kinds; those in the copious white wool probably best. That is ‘Green-seed’ from Alabama. The other is sea-island.2

The Man who sent the seed has heard of “Vine Cotton”, of which he once had a few seeds “sent from England” and he wants more—to grow.3 Now you ask Hooker4 if he knows of such a thing, and can get hold of some for this southern planter,—& will send by post hither.

Ever Yours | Asa Gray

1
CD had requested seeds of ‘common cotton’ in his letter to Asa Gray, 16 December 1879 (Correspondence vol. 27).
2
Alabama cotton is Gossypium hirsutum (upland or short-staple cotton); sea-island cotton is G. barbadense (pima or extra-long-staple cotton).
3
The man who sent the seed has not been identified. A variety known as vine cotton was grown in British Guiana and Jamaica; it was believed to have originated from sea-island cotton (Gossypium barbadense; see Duff 1866, p. 182).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-12416,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-12416