Abstract
PROF. MACBRIDE1 cites Sea Island cotton as an example of a strain evolved in response to a particular environment (in this case the sea islands of South Carolina) which only retains its distinctive characteristics under those particular conditions. He has, unfortunately, been misinformed. The perennial ancestors of Sea Island cotton were introduced from the West Indies into Carolina in the latter half of the eighteenth century and there selected for the annual habit. The annual types were sent to the West Indies about thirty-five years ago and have retained unchanged the annual habit and very high quality characteristic of the Carolina type. A Barbados stock has been cultivated on a small scale in Fiji for fifteen years and has maintained not only the general Sea Island characteristics, but also the distinctive superfine quality of the Barbados strain. In the U.S.S.R. and in Sind also American stocks have been grown for a number of years without reversion.
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MacBride, E. W., NATURE, 143, 205 (1939).
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HUTCHINSON, J. Sea Island Cotton and the Lamarckian Theory. Nature 143, 685 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/143685b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/143685b0
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