A WINTER VISIT TO THE BAHAIMA ISLANDS. 217 



It is fiftj' or sixt}' feet in height aud is a medium-sized tree. The 

 spread of its limbs is about one hundred aud twenty feet in one 

 direction by about ninety in the other and its buttresses project in 

 a helical manner fully fifteen feet from the base of the main 

 trunk. It is a native of South America, deciduous, and bears 

 an exuberance of long pods filled with a silky fibre, whence comes 

 its name, and it is a favorite custom with visitors to have themselves 

 pliotographed among its spreading buttresses, as a souvenir of 

 their visit. The native colored people of the West Indies are 

 very superstitious concerning this tree and think not only that the 

 goblins sport in its branches by night, but that any indignity 

 shown to it, such as the casting of stones at it, will be certainly 

 resented bj' some calamity, as sickness or death, being visited 

 upon the family or friends of the offender. 



Some stately specimens of the African Palm, called in Nassau 

 the Royal Palm, are to be seen with their smooth, swelling trunks, 

 having a gray, stony appearance as if turned in a lathe out of 

 stone, and of a great height. The upper portion of the trunk is 

 smaller in diameter, smooth, and green, generally wdth an abortive 

 attempt at the production of fruit hanging withered just below the 

 feather}' foliage which crowns the summit of the tree. 



The Leguminosae — the great family of pod-bearing trees, of 

 which the acacia is the type — are common and striking objects in 

 the streets, parks aud private grounds. The pods are of all kinds 

 and colors from bright, golden 3'ellow to jet black ; some are small 

 and light, others large and heavy enough to serve as formidable 

 weapons and require much force to tear them open. Of this 

 kind is the Poinciana tree. The Tamarind (7\imarindus occide^it- 

 alis) is also of this family ; it is not so flue in fruit as the T. 

 Indica, which has a large pod with a fine pulp, but nevertheless 

 a tolerable preserve is made by packing in layers of sugar the 

 pulp extracted from the pods. It has a pleasant acid flavor and 

 makes a grateful, cooling and nutritious drink in sickness. 



Orange trees are quite abundant and the fruit is excellent and 

 cheap, the highest price being one dollar per liundred at Nassau,^ 

 while at other places on the out-islands it was to be obtained 

 for fifty cents per hundred and in some instances was to be had 

 for the asking, — nice, luscious fruit. Limes were common, fine 

 and cheap. They were obtained for twenty-five cents per half- 

 peck. 



