The cotton of the country, distinguished by the name of _kápas jáwa_, is a variety of the gossypium herbaceum; but it is inferior to that generally cultivated on the Indian continent, which is also found on Java, and called by the Javans _kápas múri_. The plant of the former differs from the latter, in having a smaller stem, and in yielding a material, both of coarser fibre and in less quantity. There is a third variety, with a subarborescent stem, called _kápas táhon_, which is very scarce. Trials remain to be made, to determine how far the culture of the Indian cotton might be extended, so as to supersede the Javan cotton. The inferior kind, which forms the principal, and indeed with the mass of the people the only material for clothing, is cultivated in almost every part of the island. The soil, however, is not considered as universally favourable to its growth: many of the low lands, consisting of a clay, which bursts in the dry season, are unfit for it; and on several of the more fertile districts, where the plant itself flourishes, little cotton is obtained from it: the declivities of the hills, in which the mountain rice is raised, yield in general the best and most abundant supply. At present, scarcely a sufficient quantity is produced on the island to employ the female part of the inhabitants; and one district often depends upon another for the principal part of what it uses. The cotton of _Bányumás_ is exported to _Bágalen_, to _Tégal_, and the western parts of _Matárem_, where it is manufactured; the environs of _Wong'go_, _Adi-langú_, and other places towards the southern hills, supply both the capitals in the interior; _Kediri_, _Pranárága_, and the vicinity, likewise furnish considerable quantities for other parts of the island. In the _Súnda_ districts, the principal supply is received from the east and west _Jámpang_. The culture of cotton, and the manufacture of yarn, are in some degree promoted by an ancient custom, which imposes on every householder or village a certain contingent of cotton yarn for the sovereign, or for the person who holds the land on his account: this custom is called _panyúmpleng_. The chiefs on Java, and particularly on _Báli_, frequently wear a skein of cotton yarn entwined round the handle of the kris; a custom which sufficiently indicates the respect paid to this species of cultivation.