208 Gilpin's forest scenery. 



private despatclies to the Cliairman of the Sierra 

 Leone Company, one, relating to the natural his- 

 tory of the country, states that, in the woods con- 

 tiguous to the settlement, is a Silk-cotton Tree, 

 which, at five feet from the ground, measures 

 sixty-eight feet in circumference, and, at fifty feet 

 from the ground, thirty-one. The height of this 

 tree is prodigious ; but the adjoining trees, crowd- 

 ing round, prevent its being accurately taken. 

 This account mentions the trees of this species as 

 the largest in the country. 



Mr. Evelyn gives us the description of another 

 curious tree, called the Arbor de Rays, which is 

 found chiefly in the East Indies, and is remark- 

 able for the manner in which it propagates. From 

 the end of its boughs it distils, in a continued 

 viscous thread, a kind of gummy matter, which in- 

 creases like an icicle till it reach the ground, where 

 it takes root and becomes a stem, putting forth 

 new branches, and propagating anew, so that a 

 single plant of this kind may increase into a forest. 



Strabo describes an Indian tree, which I should 

 suppose was the same with Mr. Evelyn's Arbor 

 de Rays; only Strabo accounts more simply for 



