158 rowlee: synopsis op thk gknus ochroma 



America as "balsa," and that word has been transferred to and 

 is in general use in the United States. Balsa is the Spanish word 

 for raft, and it was applied to this tree because the Spanish 

 colonists, when they migrated to the New World, found it in 

 use by the natives for rafts. When they found a tree obviously 

 related to an Old World species, the colonists usually trans- 

 ferred the European name to the new tree. Thus, "roble," 

 the Spanish name for oak, was applied to like trees in the New 

 World; but there was nothing in Spain in any way like balsa, 

 and so the name of the object for which this wood was used was 

 transferred to the tree itself. This name was and still is largely 

 confined to countries where the trees were so used, that is, 

 Ecuador, Colombia, and Costa Rica. In Nicaragua the tree 

 is called "gatillo;" in Guatemala, "cajeto" on the west coast, 

 and "moho" and "lana" on the east coast; in Cuba, "lanillo;" 

 in Jamaica "corkwood" and "down tree," or as the Jamaican 

 negroes have it, simply "dum," In these regions it is doubtful 

 if it was ever used for rafts. 



Balsa is a very common and conspicuous tree in tropical 

 America. It is distinguished not only by its light soft wood, 

 but also by its large simple leaves, large solitary flowers, and 

 very conspicuous fruit, which is not unlike a cotton boll on a 

 large scale. When the fruit is matured, but has not finally 

 burst, it looks much like a rabbit's foot and presumably from 

 this the first species of Ochroma to be described received the 

 specific name ''lagopus." When the fruit finally bursts and the 

 mass of down falls to the earth, it suggests the fur of a rabbit. 

 The seeds are enveloped in this fur and are disseminated by it. 

 They resemble small grape seeds and, unlike cotton, the "down" 

 is not firmly and permanently attached to the seed. 



The tree of the Greater Antilles was first given a binary name, 

 Ochroma lagopus, by the Swedish botanist, Olaf Swartz, in 

 1788^ and was more fully described by him four years later. - 



At about the same time Humboldt collected specimens of 



another species in the upper valley of the Magdalena River in 



» Prodr. Veg. Ind. Occ. 98. 1788. 



^ Act. Stockh. 148. pi. 6. 1792. See also Swartz's later description, Fl. lad. 

 Occ. 2: 1 143. 1800. 



