SILK COTTON TREE. 265 
themselves. So, Cotton ropes are also employed for many 
domestic purposes. Specimens were sent to the Exhibition 
of 1851, both from Calcutta and Madras, and have considerable 
strength. Some of the native shipping, also, and even 
a few American ships, are rigged with Cotton ropes; while 
Cotton canvas is also employed for sails, especially on the 
coast of Cutch, where some very good is made, and sells for 
about three and a half annas per yard. 
Six Corron Tree, and others (Byttneriacee). 
The natural family of Byttneriacee, which includes such 
genera as Bombax, Sterculia, Abroma, Guazuma, &c., like 
that of the Mallow-worts, inhabits hot parts of the globe chiefly, 
and also like it contains a number of plants remarkable for 
abounding in mucilage and in fibrous bark. Of these some 
are employed for cordage in different parts of the world, and 
of them a few, as Abroma augusta, might probably be grown 
with greater profit, and yield a better product, than some of 
those which are now in cultivation. 
Thus the species of Bombax, which are remarkable for 
their gigantic stature and their splendid inflorescence, are 
also so on account of their capsules, which, on bursting, dis- 
play a flocculent substance, often mistaken by travellers for 
cotton, and the tree hence called Cotton tree. But as this 
substance is more silky than cotton, it has been distinguished 
by the name of Silk Cotton. It differs also in not spinning 
like cotton. Some difficulty, therefore, is experienced in 
making use of this very abundant cotton-like produce; but 
Mr. Williams, of Jubbulpore, has succeeded in spinning and 
weaving some of it so as to form avery good coverlet. It might 
be easily made use of for stuffing pillows, muffs, or coverlets, 
for wadding, or for conversion into half-stuff for paper-makers, 
perhaps for making gun-cotton. 
In the ‘Trans. of the Agri-Hortic. Soc.,’ iii, p. 274, there 
is a report from the Society of Arts on two pieces of cloth 
made from the Simool or Silk Cotton tree; and it is observed 
that, from the shortness of the staple of the down, and its 
elasticity, it could not be spun by cotton-spinning machinery. 
