50 ISLES OF SUMMER. 
little air plant, tired of keeping boarders while only living upon 
air, turned yellow and died. 
A most remarkable specimen of the ceiba or silk cotton tree 
may be seen in the rear of the central one of a collection of pub- 
lic buildings which form three sides of a quadrangle at the south- 
west corner of Bay and Parliament streets. It has a spread of 
one hundred and sixteen feet from east to west, and of ninety 
feet in the opposite directions. Its trunk isimmense. Around 
and forming part of it are huge leaves or partitions of wood some 
five or six inches thick, which are more or less twisted; these 
start from a point from ten to fifteen feet from the gr ound and, 
reaching the earth at an angle of something like forty-five degrees, 
form around the tree half-a-dozen large openings or chambers 
resembling somewhat horse-stalls. There are a number of silk 
cotton trees upon the grounds of the Royal Victoria Hotel, and 
being deciduous, and developing their leaves at different times, 
we were much interested in observing the rapidity with which 
they fully leaved out after their buds commenced toswell. One 
of these is very large, many of its huge branches are almost hori- 
zontal, and a spacious platform, with seats for the accommoda- 
tion of musicians and others, erected in the tree, is reached 
by a wide wooden railed stairway. These trees have large seed 
pods, which are packed with cotton of a soft silky texture. The 
long large roots, like huge.anacondas, traverse the surface of the 
limestone rock, and fasten the trees down with innumerable liv- 
ing clamps and threads. As if aware of the fact that they have 
been brought by man from a land of comparative meteorlogical 
quiet and repose, to an island that lies in the favorite track of 
the hurricane, it does not, like the cypress of Florida, the pines 
of the North-west, or the elms of New England, proudly push its 
branches high up in the air, but with more modesty and prudence 
than elegance, abruptly stops the upward growth of its limbs, 
