256 Tropical Vegetation — The Ceiba Tree. 



Far above all the rest, towers the gigantic Ceiba-tree.* ThJ 

 monarch of the forest, in its perfection, sends up a lofty column 

 to the height of ninety or even a hundred feet, and then 

 spreads forth horizontally in immense branches, each a huge 

 tree. At its base large spurs or buttresses stretch forth, which 

 serve to keep upright its enormous weight, and enable it to 

 resist the storms, so violent in this region. The contrast be- 

 tween the light clay color of the trunk and the dark green of 

 the leaves produces a fine effect. Its diameter above the 

 spurs is from six to eight feet, and sometimes more, somewhat 

 decreasing upwards towards the branches. Riding with a com- 

 panion on the South side of the island, we found one which 

 had fallen from decay and the application of fire to its roots. 

 As it lay extended on a level surface, and we rode on either 

 side, we could just see each other's hats over the trunk. The 

 wood of the Ceiba-tree is very light, and of not much use 

 except for making canoes. A single trunk, hollowed out for 

 this purpose, will carry twenty hogsheads of sugar. The seed 

 vessels produce a kind of cotton, which is not, however, fit for 

 spinning, but is used by the poorer classes for stuffing cushions 

 and pillows. It is considered as an ill omen to cut one of these 

 fine trees from an estate, and as boding no good to the pro- 

 prietor. 



Many of them were prostrated by the furious " temporal," 

 or hurricane which desolated the island in the autumn of 

 1844. While walking in the dismanded woods, and survey- 

 ing the wrecks scattered on all sides by a storm of whose 

 violence a north-man can form no conception, the sublime pas- 

 sage in Faust was most forcibly recalled : 



" Hark ! what a crashing through the forest ! * * • 

 Hark, to the splintering of the pillars of the evergreen palaces ! 

 the crackling and snapping of the boughs, the mighty groaning 

 of the trunks, the creaking and yawning of the roots ! — All come 

 crashing down, one over the other, in fearfully confused fall ; 

 and the winds hiss and howl through the wreck-covered 

 cliffs !" 



* Bombax Ceiba. 



