These Trees Are Not
Always Biggest Near The Roots, But Often Swell Out To A Great Size In
The Middle Of Their Trunks.
They bear silk-cotton, which falls to the
ground in November and December, but is not so substantial as that of
the cotton-shrub, being rather like the down of thistles.
Hence they do
not think it worth being gathered in America; but in the East Indies it
is used for stuffing pillows. The old leaves of this tree fall off in
April, and are succeeded by fresh leaves in the course of a week. The
red cotton-tree is somewhat less in size, but in other respects
resembles the other, except that it produces no cotton. The wood is
hard, though that of both kinds is somewhat spongy. Both are found in
fat soils, both in the East and West Indies.
[Footnote 167: Nearly in the indicated latitude is the river of Patia,
in the province of Barbacoas. The river St Jago of modern maps on this
coast is in lat. 1 deg. 18' N. in the province of Atacames, or
Esmeraldas. - E.]
The cabbage-tree is the tallest that is found in these woods, some
exceeding 120 feet in height. It likewise is without boughs or branches
to the top, where its branches are the thickness of a man's arm, and
twelve or fourteen feet long. Two feet from the stem come forth many
small long leaves of an inch broad, so thick and regular on both sides
that they cover the whole branch.
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