SILLCOTTON. Under this name, various silky fibers are from time to time brought from tropical countries in Europe; they are all of the same general character, and are produced by the trees composing the genus bombax and other genera •recently separated from bon5a.r, of the natural order slerculiarem, known as silk-cotton trees. , these trees are natives of the tropical parts of Asia, Africa, and America. The fiber fills their large woody capsules, enveloping the seeds, and is produced in great abundance, but is short, too smooth, and too elastic to be spun by the machinery used for cotton; although attempts have been made on a small scale in India to spin and weave it; and that of bombax •villogum, which is of a beautiful purple color, is woven into cloth and made into articles of dress in new Spain. Silk-cotton is much used for stuffing pillows, mattresses. and sofas. Sir James Emerson 'ferment says it "makes the most luxuriotfa stuffing" for them. It has the fault, however, of being easily broken and reduced to powder, but might probably be very useful in the manufacture of gun cotton and col lodion. The silk-cotton of the East Indies is imported into Britain under the mane of moe-main.—bonibax reiba, the CO111111011 silk-cotton tree of the West Indies and South
America, attains a very great size, its trunk sometimes being so thick that it could not be encompassed by the outstretched arms of sixteen men, sad canoes are hollowed out of it of an average burden of 25 tons. The wood is soft and spongy, but is used for many purposes, and when cut into planks, and saturated with lime-water, it bears exposure to the weather for many years. —Pontbax mulabaricum, or salmalia malGbarica.
is the common silk-cotton tree of the East Indies. It is a tall tree, covered with for midable thorns. Although it is a tropical tree, its leaves fall annually; and just before the fresh leaves appear, it is covered with crimson tulip-like flowers, so abundant that, "when they fall, the ground for many rods on all sides is a carpet of scarlet." The fiber of the capsules of chorisia 8peciAset and a Peck()liana, trees nearly allied to the genus bwitbaX, Bud natives of Brazil, Is known as VEGETABLE SILK. It has beautiful satiny luster, and is very light, but vo mode of spinning and weaving it has yet been invented.