274 BLUEFIELDS. 



never wanting, and slender flexible Lianes of great 

 length dangle in the air from the lofty branches. 



In general a tropical forest knows no such phe- 

 nomenon as the fall of the leaf ; that is, the decay of 

 some and the unfolding of other leaves proceed simul- 

 taneously and constantly, so that the foliage is ever 

 full, and ever verdant. There are however a few ex- 

 ceptions of trees, which are periodically denuded, and 

 stretch out their naked arms, as if they had ex- 

 perienced the chill blasts of a northern November. 

 The Tropic Birch {Burserd) is one of these, and the 

 Cotton- tree is another. The latter I have seen almost 

 wholly stripped of its full foliage in the course of an 

 hour, during a tempestuous gust of wind in July. It 

 remains bare for several months, the young leaves 

 appearing about the end of May. The green pods 

 in the meantime have formed, ripened, and burst, 

 liberating a quantity of fine silky filamentous down 

 of a pale brown colour. At first sight one is ready to 

 say. What a pity that a material so cotton-like and so 

 abundant should be suffered to fly about upon the 

 breeze, instead of being collected for manufacturing 

 purposes ! But in reality it is incapable of being so 

 used, the fibres being found to possess no power of 

 mutual cohesion. Under the microscope they are 

 seen to be simple cylindrical transparent tubes, some- 

 times flattened, but having neither the twisted form 

 of true cotton, nor the jointed appearance of linen, 

 nor the imbricated surface of wool. They are some- 

 times used to stuff pillows and mattrasses ; and the 

 Palm Swift and the different species of Humming- 

 birds find in them a material sufficiently soft and 

 warm for the reception of their tender young. The 



