Picture Details
Asian cotton, with detail of boll, watercolour on paper.
Partner:
Kew GardensImage reference:
ILLUS31.01/39.0ROXOrigin:
IndiaArtist / Date:
Unknown, 1790-1812Donor / Date:
1859Size:
490 x 364 mmDescription:
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Cotton has been cultivated for so long that it is often difficult for botanists to identify individual plants; not only are there several different species of cotton, but within a species there can be a variety of cultivars. This is an Asian cotton, Gossypium herbaceum. Kew's illustrations of cotton plants frequently have corrections on their labels, where botanists have re-identified wrongly labelled drawings or updated the names in accordance with changing practices in plant taxonomy. This drawing is a copy of a series of illustrations created by Indian artists at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Calcutta. The economic importance of cotton is reflected in the number of illustrations held at Kew, particularly in the collections of the East India Company.
