67 



has told the writer that the form with the long trunk and less 

 widely spreading crown is common in other parts of Cuba. The 

 following paragraph from Macfadyen's Flora of Jamaica (93. 1837) 

 gives a graphic description of this tree as it occurs in that island: 

 "This is a tree of rapid growth, and is readily propagated from 

 stakes or posts planted in the ground. A superb row of these 

 trees at Belvidere pastures, St. Thomas in the East, was estab- 

 lished from posts fixed in the earth, in making a common rail 

 fence. Perhaps no tree in the world has a more lofty and impos- 

 ing appearance, whether over-topping its humbler companions in 

 some woody district, or rising in solitary grandeur 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 ; so that, not 

 unfrequently, not even fear of punishment will induce them to cut 

 it down. Even in a state of decay, it is an object of their super- 

 stitious fears : they regard it as consecrated to evil spirits, whose 

 favour they seek to conciliate by offerings placed at its base.'' 



Ceiba pentandra is one of the few tropical trees which has 

 deciduous leaves, though its habits in this particular are somewhat 

 erratic — a matter that has recently been discussed in an interest- 

 ing way by Mrs. E. C. Anthony,* by Mr. O. W. Barrett, f and by 

 Mr. O. F. Cook.+ The leaves usually begin to fall at about Christ- 

 mas time or early in January, and the trees are commonly bare 

 the latter part of January and a considerable part of February 

 and March, during which months the numerous pale rose-coloured, 

 clustered flowers appear, followed by the pods and the leaves. 

 Individual trees, however, behave very differently from others. 

 The photographs reproduced in our figures 2 and 6 were taken on 

 the same day early in March in Nassau, but the two trees there 

 represented are shown in quite different guises. The old tree in 

 the rear of the Public Buildings, represented in figure 2, had at 

 the time one large branch which had apparently retained its old 

 leaves, the remainder of the crown being entirely bare or showing 

 clusters of flowers or young pods, while at the same time the 

 younger tree represented in our Figure 6 — a tree growing on the 

 grounds of the New Providence Asylum — was laden with nearly 

 mature pods and showed no leaves at all. Sometimes, according 

 to Mrs. Anthony (I.e.) a silk cotton tree at Nassau may omit en- 

 tirely the shedding of its leaves during the winter. The bark of 

 the Ceiba is covered when young with coarse, sharp-pointed, 

 conical or pyramidal tubercles or spines, as represented in our 

 Figure 5, but in the older trees these spines, as a rule, are scarcely 

 found unless near the ends of the younger branches, though in 

 this respect the trees show a good deal of individual variation. 



Ceiba pentandra is now widely distributed in the tropics, occur- 

 ring not only in the West Indies and Central and South America, 



* Am. Botanist 3 : 90. 1902. 

 t Am. Botanist 4 : 91. 1903. 

 X Plant World 5 : 171. 19*12. 



