[Altered from L. bombyx raw silk; see BOMBACE.] A genus of tropical trees (N.O. Sterculiaceæ), which bear a fruit containing seeds surrounded by a beautiful silky fiber; esp. B. Ceiba, the Silk-cotton tree of West Indies.
1834. Nat. Philos., III. Phys. Geog. (U. K. S.), 46. Humboldt measured … a bombax ceiba more than 120 feet high.
1863. [R. F. Burton], Wanderings W. Africa, I. 143. Scattered with tall Bentangs (Pullum ceiba), or bombax trees.
1884. Edin. Rev., July, 159. Stately bombaxes, flecked with the snowy tufts or their bursting seed-pods.
