69 



but also in the East Indies and tropical Africa. Taxonomists in 

 attempts to separate speci c cally the forms growing in these widely 

 separated regions seem a'ole to find no distinctive characters more 

 important than slight differences in the colour of the flowers. 

 Varietal and even specific names have been applied to forms of 

 this tree from different parts of the world, but the practically 

 unanimous opinion of botanists at the present day is that they 

 represent only a single species. It can hardly be supposed that 

 the tree is really indigenous in all these regions, and the question 

 as to its original home thus becomes of interest. The Index 

 Kewcnsis gives its range (under the name Erwdendron an fr act no sum) 

 as "As. et Afr. trop.," and the idea that the tree is an introduc- 

 tion in tropical America has occasionally found favour in other 

 works. That the tree has been extensively planted in the Ame- 

 rican tropics is undeniable and its rapid growth and possession 

 of woolly seeds easily transported by the wind are facts that may 

 be perhaps fairly adduced to account for the presence of very 

 large trees at the present day in forests far from human habita- 

 tions. Most writers, however, consider that Ceiba pentandra is a 

 native of America, and the evidence that can be assembled in 

 support of this view seems fairly conclusive. One fact of some 

 significance is that of the nine species of the genus Ceiba recog- 

 nized by K. Schumann in Engler & Prantl's. Die Natiirlichen 

 Pflanzenfamilien, the remaining eight are attributed exclusively 

 to the warmer parts of America. 



Pickering in his "Chronological History of Plants" (p. 783) 

 states that Eriodendron anfractuosum " was carried westward across 

 the Pacific to the Philippines" by the European colonists, and 

 also to the neighbouring islands, to Burma, to Hindustan, to equa- 

 torial East Africa, &c, though "according to Auld seemingly 

 ' wild in Kandesh.' " Many of the older possible references to this 

 tree in general botanical literature are obscured by confusion with 

 the East Indian tree now known as Bombax Ceiba, L. { = Bombax 

 malabaricum, DC), to which Linnaeus, over-estimating the import- 

 ance of the presence or absence of spines and supposing this 

 Malabar tree to occur in the west as well as in the East Indies, 

 unfortunately transferred the native American name Ceiba. In 

 searching through the writings of the earliest American explorers 

 and botanical travellers, one finds a good number of references to 

 trees which may well have been specimens of Ceiba pentandra, 

 though many of these references fall a little short of being diag- 

 nostic and conclusive. Probably the earliest and certainly one 

 of the most significant of such allusions is found in the "Select 

 Letters of Christopher Columbus"* and occurs in a letter written 

 by Dr. Chanca, physician to the fleet of Columbus on his second 

 voyage to the West Indies, and relating to the island of Espafiola 

 (Santo Domingo). Dr. Chanca wrote: — 



"We have met with trees bearing wool, of a sufficiently fine 

 quality (according to the opinion of those who are acquainted 



* 6<i. 1870 [2d. E<).] Trans'atel and cditeJ by R. H. M;.jor. London. 

 (HakWiyt S c.) 



