One sort is such
as I have formerly described by the name of the cotton-tree. The other 2
sorts I never saw anywhere but here. The trees of these latter sorts are
but small in comparison of the former, which are reckoned the biggest in
all the West India woods; yet are however of a good bigness and height.
One of these last sorts is not so full of branches as the other of them;
neither do they produce their fruit the same time of the year: for one
sort had its fruit just ripe and was shedding its leaves while the other
sort was yet green, and its fruit small and growing, having but newly
done blossoming; the tree being as full of young fruit as an apple-tree
ordinarily in England. These last yield very large pods, about 6 inches
long and as big as a man's arm. It is ripe in September and October; then
the pod opens and the cotton bursts out in a great lump as big as a man's
head. They gather these pods before they open; otherwise it would fly all
away. It opens as well after it is gathered; and then they take out the
cotton and preserve it to fill pillows and bolsters, for which use it is
very much esteemed: but it is fit for nothing else, being so short that
it cannot be spun.
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