| 释义 |
ˈcotton-tree, cotton tree
1. A name for various species of Bombax and Eriodendron.
[1552Huloet, Cotton tree, gossampinus.] 1670Phil. Trans. V. 1152 The Tree, call'd the Cotton-tree, bearing a kind of Down which also is not fit to spin. 1697W. Dampier Voy. (1729) I. 164 The White Cotton-tree grows like an Oak..They bear a very fine sort of Cotton, called Silk-Cotton. 1834M. G. Lewis Jrnl. W. Ind. 213 The first cotton trees which I saw were withered with age. 1837Penny Cycl. VIII. 91/2 The Cotton-plant, or Gossypium, must not be confounded with the Cotton-tree, Bombax, or Eriodendron.
2. A name for Viburnum Lantana and Populus nigra; in U.S. applied to Platanus occidentalis, also = cottonwood 1.
1633T. Johnson Gerarde's Herbal 1490 (Britten & Holland), I enquired of a country man in Essex if he knew any name of this [Viburnum Lantana]; he answered, it was called the Cotton-tree, by reason of the softnesse of the leaves. 1808Pike Sources Mississ. iii. App. 5 The cotton tree is the only tree of this province except some scrubby pines and cedars. 1838Loudon Arboretum (Britten & Holland), The female of Populus nigra is called the Cotton-tree at Bury St. Edmunds, the seeds being enveloped in a beautiful white cotton. 1861Miss Pratt Flower. Pl. III. 132 (Mealy Guelder-Rose, or Wayfaring Tree)..One of its common names is Cotton Tree, doubtless from the cottony appearance of its young shoots. 1865Chambers' Encycl. s.v. Plane, The North-American plane, or button⁓wood, is sometimes called the cotton-tree.
3. Either of two Australian trees, Hibiscus tiliaceus or Cochlospermum heteronemum.
1876J. G. Knight in W. Harcus South Australia 178 One or two cotton trees in the grounds of the Government Resident have yielded excellent-looking staple. 1889J. H. Maiden Useful Native Pl. Australia 624 ‘Cotton Tree’. ‘Talwalpin’ of the aboriginals. 1950J. W. Audas Native Trees Austral. (ed. 2) 174 Cochlospermum heteronemum... Its usual name of Cotton Tree is derived from the silky fibre that surrounds the seeds. 1965Austral. Encycl. III. 72/2 The name cotton-tree for Hibiscus tiliaceus derives from the useful bark fibre. |