A plant that yields cotton; a plant of the genus Gossypium or of an allied genus.
1751. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Cotton, There is another kind of cotton plant, called, by botanists, gossipium herbaceum, which creeps along the ground.
1759. trans. Adamson’s Voy. Senegal, 151. The indigo and cotton plants displayed a most lovely verdure.
1825. T. D. Fosbroke, Encycl. Antiq. (1843), I. 430/2. The Ancients knew two kinds of cotton plants, the Bombax and Gossypium.
1864. De Coin, Cotton & Tobacco, 148. The tap-root, which is the main support of the cotton-plant.
