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" The chief monument of Nassau is not one built by hand, but 

 a silk cotton tree, planted some two hundred years ago by John 

 Miller, Esq., opposite where now stands the ' public buildings.' 

 It is a stupendous tree of Titanic proportions. The roots, unable 

 to find their way down through the rocky soil, swell up like great 

 buttresses, radiating round the trunk some fifteen yards, and rising 

 from the ground six and eight feet, making a part of the actual 

 bulk of the tree, and giving the huge plant the appearance of a 

 web-footed monster, standing in solemn reverie. Among these 

 gnarled and weird roots are ravines, in whose dark hollows a 

 legion of elves could dwell and hold their revels. High above 

 this root-works spreads a canopy of leaves of the most exquisite, 

 tender green. Singular to say, the gigantic plant flattens its 

 branches at the top, nearly squared off in correspondence with 

 the flatness its roots are obliged to assume owing to the paucity 

 of earth. Had Shakespeare seen this august tree, which travellers 

 from California declare to be even more imposing than any of the 

 Mammoth trees, he would have immortalized it in a few grand 

 lines. Or, perhaps, made it the background of some quaint fairy 

 scene, or the home of another Heme the Hunter, Oberon and 

 Titania, Ariel or Puck. There are several other fine silk-cotton- 

 trees on the island, and in Cuba this tree grows to perfection ; 

 but the tree I have first attempted to describe is universally 

 acknowledged to be the finest known. I was much surprised to 

 notice the rapidity with which this plant puts forth its leaves. On 

 my arrival, I saw one of the trees in the grounds of the hotel, 

 which seemed to be dead. The rest were in leaf, but this one 

 was quite barren. In three days it was lost to sight, hidden in 

 its own new foliage, put on in at most two nights. The silk- 

 cotton-tree is so called because it bears a pod full of flossy silk, 

 which is used for filling pillows instead of down, but they say the 

 fibre is too short to be woven. 



" Nassau and its neighbourhood is really not unlike an open- 

 air museum of botanical and marine curiosities. As you drive or 

 walk through the woods and lanes your attention is constantly 

 attracted to some tree or shrub peculiar for its curious shape, 

 leaves and flowers. If you ask its name you will be told that it is 



