110 KEW GARDEN MUSEUM. 2 
Silk Cotton from the East Indies. Bombaw —?  (E.I.OC.) 
Silk Cotton from Bombax Ceiba, L. British Guiana. (Mr. Ridge- 
way.) This kind of Silk Cotton has been exported to the United 
States, and used in the manufacture of hats. 
Fruit of Bombax Buonopozense ? Beauv, West Africa. (Mrs. Hutton.) 
Down and Flower-buds of West-India-Cotton, from Eriodendron an- 
fractuosum, DC. Jamaica. (Dr. Alexander) Dr. M‘Fadyen (Flora 
of Jamaica, vol. i. p. 93) gives a most interesting account of this tree. 
“Tt is of rapid growth, and is readily propagated from stakes or posts 
planted in the ground. A superb row of these trees, at Belvidere Pas- 
tures, St. Thomas-in-the-East, was established from posts fixed in the 
earth, in making a common rail-fence. Perhaps no tree in the world 
has a more lofty and imposing appearance, whether overtopping its 
humble companions in some woody district, or rising in solitary gran- 
deur in some open plain. Even the untutored children of Africa are 
so struck with the majesty of its appearance, that they designate it the 
God-tree, and account it sacrilege to injure it with the axe. The large 
stems of this tree are hollowed out to form canoes. The wood is soft, 
and subject to the attack of insects; but if steeped in strong lime-water, 
it will last for several years, even when made into boards and shingles, 
and in situations exposed to the influence of the weather. The young 
leaves are sometimes dressed by the Negroes as a substitute for Ochras 
- (Hibiscus esculentus, L.). The wool has been employed in stuffing mat- 
 trasses, and it is said to answer the purpose equally well as feathers, 
- but to be rather warm. The caterpillar of the Macaca beetle, consi- 
. dered by some, when gutted and fried, as a very great delicacy, is to 
be found in abundance in the decayed stems of this tree." 
. Cloth woven near Gowhatty, Assam, from the wool of the Simool, 
Bombax heptaphyllum, Cav. (Major Jenkins.) 
. Silk Cotton, and the pods which contain it. Ochroma Lagopus, L. 
. Jamaica. (Dr. Alexander, H. Batteock, Esq.) Also used in the ma- 
. mufacture of hats. 
. Nest of the “Doctor Humming Bird,” made of the silk cotton of 
Ochroma Lagopus, L. (H. Battcock, Esq.) 
 Durion or Durian Fruit. Durio Zibethinus, L. Malay Islands. Is 
considered one of the most delicious productions of nature: it is in- 
deed fctid, and therefore disagreeable to those unaccustomed to it, but 
it universally becomes in the end a favourite article of the dessert. 
Cultivated extensively in the Eastern Archipelago, Lindl. It is how- 
