342 



Garden and Forest. 



[July 16, 1890. 



broad seeds surrounded by dark brown cotton similar in 

 character to that of the Cotton-plant, which botanically is 

 nearly related to this tree. 



The Silk Cotton-tree grows very rapidly, and the 

 branches, like those of the Gumbo Limbo, another West 

 Indian tree, which is common also on the islands of south 

 Florida, have the power when Gut and set in the ground of 

 developing roots and growing rapidly into large trees. 

 This makes it an easy plant to propagate, and it is fre- 

 quently planted as a shade or road-side tree, not only in 

 the West Indies, but in all other tropical parts of the world. 

 The great size of the trunks, their lightness, and the ease 

 with which the wood can be cut, enabled the Caribs to 

 make from the Ceiba, as they called this tree, their great 

 war canoes, in which they traveled safely over wide dis- 

 tances of open sea The young leaves are mucilaginous, 

 and are sometimes used by negroes as a substitute for the 

 okra, which is the fruit of another plant of the same al- 

 liance; and the cotton which surrounds the seeds, although 

 the fibre does not permit of its being woven into cloth, is 

 sometimes used in stuffing furniture. 



The imposing size and great beauty of this tree, and pos- 

 sibly the belief that the woolly appendage of the seed 

 might prove of greater value than it has turned out to be, 

 attracted the attention and excited the wonder of travelers 

 in the early days of the discovery of the new world. 

 Oviedo y Valdes, who landed in San Domingo in 1514 and 

 wrote the earliest account of the natural history of America, 

 was the first author to mention it, and from Oviedo's day 

 to the present the Silk Cotton-tree has been described more 

 or less in detail by every author who has written of the 

 natural features and productions of the West Indies and 

 the Spanish main. 



Eriodendron belongs to the tribe of the BombacecB of the 

 Mallow family, of which several other remarkable plants 

 are members. It contains some of the largest trees. The 

 African Baobab, the Adansonia of botanists, its near ally, 

 is one of the marvels of the vegetable kingdom. The 

 trunk of this tree sometimes attains a circumference of a 

 hundred feet, and individuals were estimated once to have 

 lived through six centuries. Later investigations, how- 

 ever, do not sustain such theories, as the Baobab is now 

 known to grow like the other trees of its family with great 

 rapidity. It is a native of the Cape de Verd Islands and 

 other parts of west tropical Africa, where the negroes re- 

 gard it with superstitious veneration, rendering it sacred 

 by attaching bracelets to the trunk and branches in the 

 hope of securing it from injury at the hands of the profane. 

 The thin bark, which covers trunk and branches, is green, 

 and appears to perform, to a certain extent, the functions 

 of leaves, which only remain on the branches during three 

 or four months of the year. It is the pulp that surrounds 

 the seeds of this tree which is believed to have furnished 

 the Terra lemnia, the mysterious powder brought to Egypt 

 by the caravans and held in high repute by the physicians 

 of the ancients for the treatment of many diseases. 

 Another species of Adansonia inhabits Madagascar, and a 

 third is Australian. 



To the Boi/ibacece, too, belongs the Durio {Durio zi- 

 belhinus), a large tree of the Indian Archipelago which 

 furnished the Durien fruit, one of the most delicate and es- 

 teemed of all tropical fruits, although it possesses an odor 

 which is unspeakably offensive to people when they 

 first smell it, but which is unnoticed when once the 

 taste for it is fairly acquired. This fruit forms a large 

 part of the food of the native population in some regions 

 of the East Indies, 'and as the trees are always left stand- 

 ing when the forests are cleared off for cultivation, the 

 Durio is one of the conspicuous features in many eastern 

 tropical landscapes. It is cultivated all over the east for the 

 fruit, while the wood, like that of another plant of the same 

 relationship, the Asiatic Bombax, has many useful qualities. 



We are indebted to Mr. William B. Bacon, of Boston, for 

 the photograph of the great Silk Cotton-tree at Nassau, 

 from which our illustration has been made. 



The Economic Uses of Leaves. 



EVERY part of plants and trees is more or less utilized by 

 savage and civilized men — the roots, stems, sap, bark, 

 fruit and seeds, and leaves. If we take the foliage, apparently 

 the most insignificant part of the plant, howdependent are we 

 on these for food, clothing, medicine, dyes, stains and various 

 comforts. In tropical countries especially the domestic uses 

 of leaves are almost innumerable. 



The leaves of many Palms are largely employed for making 

 hats. Those best known are Panama hats, made from the 

 finely-plaited fibre of the leaves of a South American Screw 

 Pine {Carludovica palmata). The tree occurs only on the 

 slopes of the Andes. About 200,000 dozens of these hats are 

 made in Ecuador and different states of South America, and 

 they are distinguished from all others by consisting only of a 

 single piece and by their lightness and flexibility; they may be 

 rolled up and put in the pocket without injury. The plaiting 

 of the hats is very tedious and troublesome ; the coarse ones 

 may be finished in two or three days, but the fine ones take 

 as many months to plait. They vary in price, according to 

 fineness and quality, from five dollars to a hundred dollars. 

 The unexpanded fronds of Livistonia australis, prepared by 

 being immersed in boiling water, are dried, and the fibre thus 

 obtained is much valued for the manufacture of hats in Aus- 

 tralia which much resemble the celebrated Panama hats. 



The rough leaves of the Chumico {Curatella A/uerieana)and 

 of Davilla lucida are used for cleaning iron and polishing and 

 scouring wood. Curatella alata is used in the West Indies for 

 polishing bows, sabres, etc.; and in Brazil C. sambaiba serves 

 all the purposes of sand-paper to the Indians for polishing 

 their blow-pipes and war clubs. The leaves of Celtls orientalis 

 are used for polishing horns in the East Indies. 



The foliage of Guaiacum officinale is very detersive, and is 

 frequently used in the West Indies to scour and whiten floors, 

 which it is said to do better than soap. 



Leaves sewn together are much used in India as substitutes 

 for the plates and dishes of more civilized life. It is not always 

 poverty that leads natives to use them in preference to metal 

 or porcelain articles, as caste or custom has often some in- 

 fluence in the matter. The leaves principally used are those 

 of the Egyptian Lotus; those of the Banyan by Brahmins, and 

 the Plantain-leaf. 



The leaves of Bauhinia Vahlil are used in the construction 

 of the curious, rude leaf-bellows in Sikkim, with which the 

 natives of the hills smelt iron. These leaves, when sown to- 

 gether, are used as plates, cups, rough table cloths, rain-hats 

 and caps. The leaves are heart-shaped and above a foot in 

 breadth, and the same in length. Sewn together with twigs, 

 they also serve for baskets for holding pepper, turmeric and 

 ginger, and are likewise used for thatching. 



Under the name of "Chattahs," a kind of umbrella-hat or 

 sun-shade is made in the East of the leaves of the Licuala pel- 

 tata and the Talipot Palm. These Chattah hats are much worn 

 by the plowmen and coolies of Bengal and Assam. 



The large fan-shaped leaves of the Talipot Palm are like 

 those of the Palmyra Palm, carried over the heads of people 

 of rank as an umbrella, and are also used for making books 

 and for various domestic purposes. They are also cut up into 

 neat bracelets, worn by Santal girls in India. Those of Vanda 

 Roxburghii, split, are also worn by them as anklets. Those of 

 another species, Borassus JEthiopicus, occur as much as twelve 

 feet across, and serve also for the manufacture of baskets, 

 mats, ropes and sieves. The leaves of Nipa fruticans attain a 

 height of fifteen to twenty feet, presenting a very handsome 

 appearance, resembling the fronds of huge Ferns. This 

 graceful eastern Palm is utilized in various ways, the principal 

 being in the manufacture of thatching for house-roofs. This 

 manufacture is quite an industry of itself, and affords employ- 

 ment to many natives, chiefly women, the men simply bring- 

 ing cargoes of the fronds to the women, to be stitched with 

 split rattans, and made up. Atap roofs are the best adapted 

 for these climates, for while the winds are never strong 

 enough to blow them away, they afford the coolest protection 

 against the sun of any kind of roofing known. 



The leaves of the Palmyra Palm were formerly used like 

 paper, to write books on, and to this day they are applied to 

 this purpose in Orissa, southern India, and Ceylon, where an 

 iron style is employed to write upon them; in Bengal young 

 children use them to write the alphabet lessons on. They are 

 largely employed for making pans, bags, winnows, hats, um- 

 brellas, and for thatching, etc. The leaf takes a dye well and 

 is worked up in Madras into pretty colored patterns in baskets 

 and mats. 



The slips of Talipot and other Palm leaves are coming into 

 European commerce for the manufacture of ornamental 



