?>0 ISLES OF STTMMER. 



little air plaut, tired of keeping iDoarder.s while only living upon 

 air, turned yellow and died. 



A most remarkable specimen of the ceiba or silk cotton tree 

 may be seen in the rear of the central one of a collection of pub- 

 lic buildings which form three sides of a quadrangle at the soutli- 

 Avest corner of Bay and Parliament streets. It has a spread of 

 one hundred and sixteen feet from east to west, and of ninety 

 feet in the opposite directions. Its trunk is immense. Around 

 and forming part of it are huge leaves or partitions of wood some 

 five or six inches thick, which are more or less twisted; these 

 start from a point from ten to fifteen feet from the ground and, 

 reaching the earth at an angle of something like forty-five degrees, 

 form around the tree half-a-dozen large openings or chambers 

 resembling somewhat horse-stalls. There are a number of silk 

 cotton trees upon the grounds of the Eoyal Victoria Hotel, and 

 being deciduous, and developing their leaves at different "times^ 

 we were much interested in observing the rapidity with which 

 they fully leaved out after their buds commenced to swell. One 

 of these is very large, many of its huge branches are almost hori- 

 zontal, and a spacious platform, with seats for the accommoda- 

 tion of musicians and others, erected in the tree, is reached 

 by a wide wooden railed stairway. These trees have large seed 

 pods, Avhich are packed Avith cotton of a soft silky texture. The 

 long large roots, like huge anacondas, traverse the surface of the 

 limestone rock, and fasten the trees down with innumerable liv- 

 ing clamps and threads. As if aware of the fact that they have 

 been brought by man from a land of comparative meteorlogical 

 quiet and repose, to an island that lies in the favorite track of 

 tbe hurricane, it does not, like the cypress of Florida, the pines 

 of the Korth-west, or the elms of New England, proudly push its 

 branches high up in the air, but with more modesty and prudence 

 than elegance, abruptly stops the upward growth of its limbs. 



