THE BED HAIRY-TAIL. 
279 
tritive power in a part of the roots ; and nourishment 
may have been retarded, or oversupplied, in the 
portions of the tree which have gone out of equi- 
librium. Be it whichever it may of these causes, 
the alternation of foliage and flowers has been 
changed ; and a half, or less or more than a half, of a 
Silk-Cotton tree may be seen in luxuriant summer 
foliage, and the other parts bearing flowers and fruit 
on a leafless stem, or suffering hybernation, and shed- 
ding its leaves partially, while the other portions 
of the vegetable giant stand up a marvellous pile 
of verdure. 
“ I do not wonder that you were not acquainted 
with this characteristic economy of the Eriodendron, 
for it requires a residence of five years in the colony, 
or observations during two successive alternations of 
flowers and foliage, and the commencement of a third, 
to gain a knowledge of it.” 
THE RED HAIRY-TAILED BAT. 
Immediately behind Bluefields, the road leading 
to the mountain is crossed by the little river, which 
spreads itself out in a brawling, rippling sheet of 
considerable width, but scarcely more than mid-leg 
high at the deepest. Here the black women and 
girls assemble to wash their linen, choosing to come 
several together, that gossip and jocularity may 
lighten their labour. The berries of the Soap-tree 
(^Sapindus saponaria?) supply the place of soap, and 
make with water a lather in no respect inferior to 
that (to us) indispensable article of household econo- 
