790 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL, HERBARIUM. 



trees and others still larger. If I should speak of these things without hav- 

 ing seen them I should be afraid to mention them ; for it is the custom of 

 fault-finders not to content themselves with repudiating those things which 

 in themselves are doubtful, but to contradict things that are publicly known. 

 But since I know that I speak the truth, it does not bother me if the ignorant 

 revile me, for barking dogs do not bite. I may say then that at a league's 

 distance from the city of Dari^n, otherwise known as Santa Maria del An- 

 tigua, runs a very wide and deep river called Cutf. Before the Christians 

 took possession of that country, the Indians had thrown down a stout tree 

 which crossed that river from bank to bank ; it was in a place where we were 

 constantly crossing to go to our mines and plantations. The tree was very 

 long and thick, but it had been there for some time and had sunk in the 

 middle. Although we passed along the upper side, there was one stretch where 

 the water came to the knees, and every year it lowered a little more, because 

 the stream wore away the banks on which the trunk rested. Wherefore in the 

 year 1522, when I was magistrate and captain in that city, I had another 

 tree growing on the bank thrown across the stream a few paces below. 

 When cut down it stretched clear across the river, and 50 feet besides; and 

 the river was more than 100 feet wide. This tree where it was thickest was 

 16 palms or more in diameter. * * * i^ comparison with many other 

 trees in the region, this was a small one." * * * "In Hispaniola there 

 was a tree, eight leagues from this city, where it had the name of the drbol 

 gordo, of which I have often heard the Admiral Don Diego Colon speak, and 

 I have heard him say that he and fourteen other men, taking hold of hands, 

 could not reach around it. * * * To me this is not remarkable, remem- 

 bering still larger ceyha trees that I have seen on the mainland. In the 

 province of Nicaragua are the largest trees I have yet seen, which greatly 

 surpass those I have mentioned ; I shall speak only of a ceyha which I saw 

 many times, less than half a league from the residence of the Cacique of 

 Thecoatega, beside a river of the town of the Cacique of Guagama, which 

 belongs to the grant of a man called Miguel Lucas, or his companions Fran- 

 cisco Nliiiez and Luis FarfS-n. This tree I measured with my own hands by 

 a cabuya cord, and found its circumference at the base to be 33 varas, or 132 

 spans [SS feet] ; and since it stood on the bank of a river it was not possible 

 to measure the lowest portion of the roots; if properly measured, I judge its 

 circumference would have been 36 varas or 144 spans [96 feet]. This had 

 the thickest trunk of all the trees I have seen. The wood of the ceyba trees is 

 spongy, easily cut, and light, and the tree is unimportant except for two 

 things : One is its wool and the other its vast shade, for the branches are 

 very wide-spreading, and the shade is wholesome, not oppressive like that of 

 other trees of the Indies, which is notoriously harmful. * * * -jij^g wool 

 is short and I do not believe it could be spun ; but for pillows and cushions 

 it is unique in its softness, and no feathers, wool, or cotton equal it ; but if wet 

 it forms into balls and is spoiled. * * * The Indians of Nicaragua have 

 places set aside for the Hangup or market, and there they have two, three, 

 or four of these ceyha trees for shade, which are sufficient to shelter one to 

 two thousand people. * * * in the province of Nicaragua this tree is 

 called poxot, and in other places it has other names." 



Flowers 3 to 3.5 cm. long. Leaflets glabrous, even when young. 



1. C. pentandra. 

 Flowers 8 to 15 cm. long or larger. 



Leaflets 1.5 to 3.5 cm. long, usually rounded or very obtuse at apex and muc- 

 ronate 2, C. parvifolia. 



