PHYSIOLOGY OF THE RED MANGROVE. 593 



present species of the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf and the Indus 

 Delta have been compared with those mentioned in the classics as 

 noted on Alexander's March, there is now little doubt that the 

 Rhizophora has been accurately described by these early mariners. 

 Theophrastus, 305 B.C.,^ the pupil and successor of Aristotle, in 

 his " Historia Plantarum " quotes Aristobulus as having seen in 

 " the desert Gedrosia, trees that are about 30 cubits tall and have a 

 flower that looks like a white violet and has a far-reaching odor." 

 Nearchus also noted the relation of the plants to the tides, for he is 

 quoted as observing them in Sec. 4, eV hi rats viyo-ots rais vtto rrj^ 

 wXrjfjivpLBo'i KaTa\aix(3avofj.€vai<;, i. €., in the islands which are reached 

 by the flood tide, and also in Sec. 5 (xa^' o 17 TrXrjixvpU ytVerai Se'vSpa 

 co-Ttv) he says: "Wherever the floodtide reaches, there are these 



trees." 



However, in Sec. 4, 7, Theophrastus gives the fullest description 

 of the RJlizophora, "txtiv Sc to SeVSpov <^vXXovp.i.v o/xoiov rfj 8d<f)vr], avOo'i Se 

 Tots tot?, etc.," and the tree has a leaf like a laurel, but a flower like 

 a violet both in color and odor, and a fruit the size of an olive, and 

 this fruit is also fragrant. It does not cast its leaves, but the flower 

 and the fruit both appear in the fall and they drop off the fruit in 

 the spring." Bretzl thinks that the Greeks on account of being with 

 Nearchus at the Indus Delta in September and in the Persian Gulf 

 in February were in a position to be acquainted with both these 

 phenomena. The mention of a violet-like odor is persistent not 

 only in these early Greek writings, but also in the works of much 

 later botanists, even down to the eighteenth century. 



Theophrastus admirably describes the habit of the mangrove in 

 growing out in rather deep water, where he says in Sec. 5 : *' These 

 trees are all washed by the sea up to their middle," and in Sec. 4 

 " and they are held up .by their roots like a polyp, for whenever 

 there is an ebb-tide these (the roots) may be seen." He describes 

 the pneumatophore prop roots of the Rhizophora, and again he 

 says : " Some have their roots always flooded by the sea as many 

 as grow in hollow places \vhence the water does not flow away and 

 nevertheless the tree does not perish at the hand of the sea." Theo- 

 phrastus also reports the ecological relations of the RhizopJwra and 



^ Theophrastus, " Historia Plantarum," IX., 4, 2. 



