219 



but this individual, in the opinion of Mr. L. J. K. Brace of Nassau, 

 is "fully 150 years or more old." In the public library at Nassau 

 is a sketch representing " A View of a Silk Cotton Tree in the 

 Island of New Providence, Bahamas, May 12, 1802" ; this, by 

 tradition and from general resemblance, is supposed to show the 

 patriarch silk-cotton tree of the island — the one of which the 

 photograph is here published — as it appeared in 1802. The 

 tree at that time, according to the sketch, had young buttresses 

 of a considerable size and in the judgment of Mr. Brace it must 

 have been then at least 50 years old. The tolerably uniform and 



Figure 2. Another view of the Cr2(^a shown in Figure i. Photograph taken 

 early in March, 1905. 



comparatively slight thickness of the buttresses makes it easy to 

 cut out parts of them for use as planks or boards, and in west 

 Africa, according to Cook and Collins (/. c.) "pieces of these 

 supporting wings are sawed out and used as doors of native 

 houses." 



In the Bahama Islands and in Porto Rico, where the writer 

 has seen the Ceida growing, the tree has a rather short and stout 



