Hunter and Ferguson note that in regards to the "seeds" mentioned by Nephi (1 Nephi 18:24), the seeds of the cotton plant are of special interest to Book of Mormon students. At the twenty-ninth meeting of the International Congress of Americanists held at New York City in September, 1949, an important paper was read by a botanist, George Carter. He notes that three groups of the cotton plant are known. The first has thirteen large chromosomes. The second type has thirteen small chromosomes. The third type has thirteen small and thirteen large chromosomes. Old World domesticated cotton has only the large chromosomes. New World wild cotton has only the small chromosomes. The cotton of the cultured settlers of ancient Middle America is a blend of Old World cotton and New World wild cotton because it alone has both the thirteen large chromosomes and the thirteen small chromosomes. The botanical evidence, it should be noted, is against any of these Old World (cotton) plants possibly having drifted across the ocean to America by themselves. The only alternative is that, if they actually did originate in the Old World as now indicated, they must have been carried across in ships in early transoceanic migrations from the Old World. [Milton R. Hunter and Thomas S. Ferguson, Ancient America and the Book of Mormon, p. 307]