10 



THE CUBA REVIEW 



THE CEIBA OR SILK-COTTON TREE 



There is no other tree in ("iihii alxml wliicli tlicre is so imich curious information as the 

 ceiba,and every onewho visits the Island is impressed by this wonderful and ever-present tree. 

 It is a very eonspieuous feature of the Cuban landscape. To the ordinary traveller in Cuba 

 ceiba or seiba is the most familiar name for this tree, but in literature it is more often referred 

 to as the silk-cotton or kapok tree, because it ])roduces a cotton which is well known in the 

 market as silk cotton or kapok; it is also called flo.ss tree, or less frecjuently cork-wood tree, 

 on account of the soft and liKht nature of the wood which occasionally comes in the American 

 markets a.s cork wood. Botanically this tree is known as Eriodvitdron otifracluosum. The 

 generic name is derived from the Greek eriott, meaning wool, and dcndron, tree. The specific 



The "silk-cotton tree of Cuba, showing the spiny pro.joctions on tho trunk. 



name is from amb, a path or road, and frango, bending. It received this latter name, because 

 of the enormous buttresses at the foot of the trunk, causing in some instances a marked de- 

 flection of roads. Practically all old trees have these root swellings developed to a remarkable 

 degree often extending for many feet from the base of the tree. These buttresses spread so 

 extensively in some cases that a man walking around a tree is obliged to make a distance of 

 one hundred and fifty feet. In fact some of them are sufficiently high and wide to allow for a 

 comfortable hut between them. 



The ceiba is easily the largest tree in Cuba. It grows to the height of eight}- or a hundred 



