The Ceibas, which I saw in the maritime province of Xicayau, may be compared with this famous fir. The largeness of these trees is proportioned on their prodigious elevation, and they afford a most delightful prospect at the time they are adorned with new leaves and loaded with fruit, in which there is inclosed a particular species of white, fine, and most delicate cotton. This might be, and actually has been, made into webs as soft and delicate, and perhaps more so, than silk (r); but it is toilesome to spin, on account of the smallness of the threads, and the profit does not require the labour, the web not being lasting. Some use it for pillows and mattresses, which have the singular property of swelling enormously when exposed to the sun.