THE SILK-COTTON TREE. 273 



twelve or fifteen feet high at their origin in the 

 trunk. I have often thought that very commodious 

 temporary dwellings might be made of the broad 

 areas inclosed by two spurs, with a very little trim- 

 ming with the axe, covering the top with a sloping 

 roof of palm-leaves on two or three cross-poles. The 

 projection of a dozen or more of these wide, and high, 

 but thin, expansions gives a monstrous bulk to a tree 

 which without them would be of vast dimensions. I 

 have seen the stump of one recently cut down, the 

 solid timber of which, exclusive of the root-spurs, I 

 judged to be not less than forty feet in circumference ; 

 though I did not measure it. Its altitude and. ex- 

 panse are equally gigantic ; its enormous crown is 

 frequently elevated far above the general level of the 

 forest, and hence particular trees are often specified 

 in nautical guidebooks as land-marks, being conspi- 

 cuous objects at sea. It is by no means uncommon 

 for the colossal trunk to reach to eighty or a hundred 

 feet in naked majesty, before a single branch is sent 

 forth ; and I should think its total height not in- 

 frequently reaches a hundred and fifty feet. The 

 limbs are of the bulk of ordinary forest-trees ; they 

 commonly break out from the bole three or four upon 

 the same plane, and radiate nearly horizontally to a 

 vast distance. They are often much contorted, and 

 full of sudden angular inflections. Long ragged- 

 looking Cacti {Cereus triangularis and other more 

 whip-like species) creep and hang loosely from these 

 limbs ; immense numbers of Wild Pines, from the 

 rough hairy tufts of "Old Man's beard" {Tillandsia 

 usneoides) to the noble j^climece and Vriesice, are 



