BOTANV. 



SI 



manufacture of their formidable, ingeniously carved war- 

 clubs, hence they term it the club-wood. They also fash- 

 ioned valuable fishing hooks from its roots. The casuarina 

 of our Provinces is found inhabiting only the loose, sandy 

 soil of the sea-board, and never inland. In general outline 

 it resembles the pine, but it is of a more slender figure, 

 and more elegant in appearance. Ft is a remarkable tree, 

 growing eighty feet high, and spreading out without a leaf 

 of covering; but its numerous fine knotted branchiets, 

 mantled with brilliant green, and hanging in drooping 

 bunches, or floating out lightly upon the breeze like long 

 skeins of green silk, adorn it with the most graceful drapery; 

 and make it one of the most desirable trees for embellish- 

 ing a Tenasserim park. 



Casuarina muricata. 



co£$s« SOI- £§<i 



TENASSERIM BANYAN. 



Few persons are aware that we have a species of ficus in 

 the Provinces which has the habit of dropping roots from 

 its branches that root in the ground, and become trunks 

 as large as the parent tree, to an extent nearly equal to 

 the famous banyan. It escapes notice because it developes 

 itself in the greatest perfection near the mangrove swamps, 

 and some who see it call it a mangrove ; and it never grows 

 spontaneously except on the banks of tide water streams. 

 It is not found however, in the mangrove lands which are 

 under water every tide, but abo*e that belt where heritiera 

 trees, and their associates show themselves, on land that 

 is inundated by the spring tides only. Specimens are seen 

 farther toward the interior, as on the banks of the Gyaine. 

 but on the low banks near the sea between Tavoy and 

 Mergui, the trees often form labyrinths from which I ha\e 

 more than once found it difficult to extricate myself. Ir 

 is rather remarkable that the tree has never been introduc- 

 ed into our towns, where it would be quite an ornament to 

 the sides of our public walks. In a few instances I have seen 

 the tree planted on high ground, one at a village near the 

 sea-coast west of Tavoy, where it appears to grow very well. 

 A very nearly allied species Wight says, is "much used a* 



