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cumference. This is the largest thing in the tree line that I have seen,- 

 The wood of these ceybas is soft and easy to cut and of little 

 weight and the tree is not held in esteem for building or for more 

 than two purposes. One is its wool and the other the shade, 

 which is extensive, for these are great trees with very spreading 

 branches, and the shade is healthful and not heavy like the shade 

 of other trees that exist in these Indies, which are notoriously 

 harmful ; like that of the tree from which is made the poison with 

 which the Carib Indians charge their arrows. The fruit of these 

 trees is a pod, shaped like the largest finger of the hand, but as 

 thick as two fingers, rounded and full of delicate wool ; after 

 ripening, these pods dry and open through the heat of the sun, 

 and then the wind carries away the wool, in which are certain 

 little grains which are its seeds, as is the case with the cotton. 

 This wool appears to me to be a notable thing and the fruit of 

 the ceyba is after the manner of the bitter cucumbers of Castile, 

 except that the fruits of the ceyba are larger and thicker : but the 

 largest is not longer than the great finger of the hand ; and when 

 it is ripe it breaks lengthwise into four parts, and with the first 

 wind is seen the wool (this fruit has nothing else within it) and 

 it looks as if it has snowed wherever the wool has sufficed to 

 cover the ground. This wool is short and it seems to me that it 

 could not be spun into thread ; but for bed-pillows and cushions 

 of the drawing-room (free from wet) it is a wool unique in its soft- 

 ness and without any ill effects to the head, and for the couches 

 of princes the most delicate and estimable of all the wools ; it is 

 a silk and even more delicate than the subtile threads of silk. So, 

 no feathers or wool or cotton can equal it ; but, if it is wet, it all 

 becomes balled and loses itself. I have experienced all this, and 

 so long as this wool does not become wet there is none like it for 

 cushions and pillows. The Indians in Nicaragua are accustomed 

 to have appointed places for the tiangiiez, that is to say, the market, 

 where they come together for their gatherings, their fairs, and 

 their barterings, and there they have two, three, and four trees of 

 these ceybas to give shade ; and in many plazas or tiangiiez, two 

 or three or four ceybas suffice to give shade to a thousand and 

 two thousand persons, and they arrange the ceybas according as 

 the concourse of the plaza or tiangiiez is large or small. This 

 great tree, which in this island [Espanola], they call ceyba, as I 

 have said, is called poxot in the province of Nicaragua and in 

 other parts bears other names." 



Bartolome de las Casas, Bishop of Chiapa, the famous pioneer 

 missionary to the New World and defender of the Indians against 

 their Spanish conquerors, came to Espanola in 1 502, and spent 

 the greater part of his long life in the West Indies, Venezuela, 

 Peru, Central America and Mexico. His " Historia de las Indias" 

 was known only from manuscript copies up to 1875-76 and seems 

 not to be alluded to by any of the authors who have dealt with 

 the silk-cotton tree, the present writer being indebted to Dr. 

 Manuel Gomez de la Maza, of the University of Havana, for a re- 

 ference to it. The description of the "ceyba" given by Las Casas 



