276 SPANISH-TOWN. 



** I am glad you have asked me to explain the 

 occurrence of the unleafed Eriodendron in the month 

 qi July, because it enables me to detail some 

 peculiarities in the economy of that magnificent 

 tree, not usually noticed by naturalists. 



*' The Eriodendron, or Silk-Cotton tree, is charac- 

 terised by the remarkable property of producing 

 leaves and flowers in alternate years. When seen 

 with its seed pods at the terminal twigs, dotting its 

 immense mass of stems and branches all over, it has 

 not yet expanded into leaf; the foliage is still 

 enclosed in the leaf-bud. At this time it is much 

 more an emblem of Hope, than Moore's Almond- 

 tree in Lalla Rookh ; it not alone blossoms, but 

 matures fruit upon a leafless stem. 



" The Eriodendron, or Ceiba, as the Indians called 

 the tree, exhibits a growth by concentric layers of 

 wood, of more or less regulated thickness, only in 

 the early period of its life. It is observed soon to 

 become ventricose at a short height in the trunk, 

 being thicker about the middle than lower down 

 towards the root. Up to this time the bark is armed 

 with strong spines, which are obliterated when the 

 ventricose character disappears. After this state of 

 progression, it commences throwing out buttresses 

 from the trunk to the large radiated roots, which now 

 show themselves on the surface of the soil. When 

 the growth has advanced to this condition, the wood 

 is no longer deposited in the lower part of the tree 

 in concentric lines of regulated thickness, for the 

 sap, both in ascending and descending, instead of 

 being equally distributed under the bark, is now 



