The Isles of summer; or, Nassau and the Bahamas .. . much interested in observing the rapidity with whichthey fully leaved out after their buds commenced to swell. Oneof these is very large, many of its huge branches are almost hori-zontal, and a spacious platform, with seats for the accommoda-tion of musicians and others, erected in the tree, is reachedby a wide wooden railed stairway. These trees have large seedpods, Avhich are packed Avith cotton of a soft silky texture. Thelong large roots, like huge anacondas, traverse the surface of thelimestone rock, and fasten the trees down with innum
The Isles of summer; or, Nassau and the Bahamas .. . much interested in observing the rapidity with whichthey fully leaved out after their buds commenced to swell. Oneof these is very large, many of its huge branches are almost hori-zontal, and a spacious platform, with seats for the accommoda-tion of musicians and others, erected in the tree, is reachedby a wide wooden railed stairway. These trees have large seedpods, Avhich are packed Avith cotton of a soft silky texture. Thelong large roots, like huge anacondas, traverse the surface of thelimestone rock, and fasten the trees down with innumerable liv-ing clamps and threads. As if aware of the fact that they havebeen brought by man from a land of comparative meteorlogicalquiet and repose, to an island that lies in the favorite track oftbe hurricane, it does not, like the cypress of Florida, the pinesof the Korth-west, or the elms of New England, proudly push itsbranches high up in the air, but with more modesty and prudencethan elegance, abruptly stops the upward growth of its THE CEIBA, OR ftTLl? COTTON TREE, 91 and makes up in lateral tipread what it lacks in elevation. Thefirst mentioned silk cotton tree is believed by an apparently wellinformed Nassau writer, whom we have heretofore quoted, tohave been brought from South Carolina, and, as he thinks, allthe others upon the island have been derived from it. None ofthe latter that we saw, exhibit the wonderful formation of boothsaround and constituting a portion of the stem which characterizesand makes famous their ancestral tree. The negroes, says Charles Kingsley, are shy of felling theceiba. It is a magic tree, haunted by spirits. There are toomuchjumbies m him, the negro says, and of those who dare cuthim down, some one will die or come to harm within the one we have described looks indeed as if it was possessed,and it is easy for any one to imagine that viewless goblins sportamong its roots and bianches, and repose in the strange openchamber
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, bookidislesofsummerorn00ives
