THE SILK-COTTON TKEE. 
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twelve or fifteen feet high at their origin in the 
trunk. I have often thought that very commodious 
temporary dwellings might be made of the broad 
areas inclosed by two spurs, with a very little trim- 
ming with the axe, covering the top with a sloping 
roof of palm-leaves on two or three cross-poles. The 
projection of a dozen or more of these wide, and high, 
but thin, expansions gives a monstrous hulk to a tree 
which without them would he of vast dimensions. I 
have seen the stump of one recently cut down, the 
solid timber of which, exclusive of the root-spurs, I 
judged to be not less than forty feet in circumference ; 
though I did not measure it. Its altitude and ex- 
panse are equally gigantic ; its enormous crown is 
frequently elevated far above the general level of the 
forest, and hence particular trees are often specified 
in nautical guidebooks as land-marks, being conspi- 
cuous objects at sea. It is by no means uncommon 
for the colossal trunk to reach to eighty or a hundred 
feet in naked majesty, before a single branch is sent 
forth ; and I should think its total height not in- 
frequently reaches a hundred and fifty feet. The 
limbs are of the bulk of ordinary forest-trees ; they 
commonly break out from the bole three or four upon 
the same plane, and radiate nearly horizontally to a 
vast distance. They are often much contorted, and 
full of sudden angular inflections. Long ragged- 
looking Cacti {Cereus triangularis and other more 
whip-like species) creep and hang loosely from these 
limbs ; immense numbers of Wild Pines, from the 
rough hairy tufts of “Old Man’s beard” {Tillandsia 
usneoides) to the noble jdEclimece and Vriesice^ are 
