INDIAN RUBBER TREE. SINGING TREE. 95 
Ithas been utilized for man’s benefit inso many ways that it has 
become almost a factor in the problem of civilized existence. As 
a representative tree, filled with juices of such great practical 
value to the whole civilized world, we approached it with a feel- 
ing of reverence and of gratitude. Like all true merit it was 
unostentatious and modest, and put on no airs. It flaunted no 
gaudy colors, while looking down from its giddy elevation upon its 
less gifted neighbors. It was perhaps as large as a medium sized 
maple, and its leaves were thick and leathery, resembling some- 
what those of the magnolia grandi flora, but of a darker shade, 
and less glossy and waxy. When Mr. Burnside’s boys desire 
rubber balls they, by tapping the tree, quickly secure an abundance 
of sap, which hardens into rubber upon being exposed to the air 
and sunlight. Upon the banks of the Amazon, where it abounds, 
man is satisfied to simply live and propagate his lazy and indo- 
lent race, but the stimulus of the crisp and frozen airs of north- 
ern climes, thousands of miles away from the source of supply, 
causes a demand that essentially aids in the development of com- 
mercial enterprise—as Creative Wisdom intended it should. 
Several kinds of trees in Nassau mature their seeds like the 
bean, in pods. One of these has upon its branches in the winter 
season a large number of delicate light-colored, silvery, translu- 
cent pods, about eight inches long, which, being swayed and 
shaken by the wind, so fill the air with soft, soothing music, that 
the tree has been called the “‘singing tree.” Some sour, cross, 
crusty and ungallant individual has had the temerity to name it 
“‘woman’s tongue ”—because it is never still! 
This tree is of a large size, and loses its leaves some time after 
it has flowered. Its blossoms have been described as particularly 
beautiful but odorless, resembling the finest floss silk. Before 
the tree leaves out, the blossoms hang, crescent shaped, from the 
top of long stems. We arrived too late for its flowers, but in 
season for its soft murmuring music, 
