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;
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. (The History of Mexico, Collected from
Spanish and Mexican Historians, From Manuscripts and Ancient Paintings of the
Indians: Illustrated by Charts, and Other Copper Plates; To Which are Added,
Critical Dissertations on the Land, the Animals, and Inhabitants of Mexico,
2 vols. [trans. Francesco Saverio Clavigero; London: J. Johnson, 1807], 1:31)
