Where we used to live, there were vast fields of cotton near our home. It was so interesting to watch the plants go from yellow flowers to a dead and dried up looking plant that produced big fluffy bolls of cotton. Every year it was a race for the farmers to let the cotton become fully formed before it could be ruined by rain.
This is a 150 year old botanical print displaying the life cycle of cotton plants. In nature, cotton plants aren’t in flower when the cotton bolls are fully formed. This print offers a unique look at cotton in a prettier form than it is found in nature. This cotton life cycle drawing was included in the 1858 work Lessons From the Vegetable World.
This image is copyright free and in the public domain anywhere that extends copyrights 70 years after death or at least 120 years after publication when the original illustrator is unknown.