598 BOWMAN— ECOLOGY AND 



urgent necessity it did not offend me to taste it, so that I might 

 describe it the more accurately, and so for that reason I tasted the 

 fruit but it seems that it should be called rather, the food of brute 

 animals and wild men of the woods." From the writings of Clusius 

 and Oviedo thus it seems that the natives of the West Indies used 

 the hypocotyl as a source of food in famine times, probably on 

 account of the starch they contain, but as Piso says they must have 

 had a special method of preparing them to eliminate some of the 

 tannin. 



In 1648 Piso^^ and Marcgraf noted the mangrove as it occurred 

 along the shores of Brazil. Under the chapter heading " Devariis 

 specibus Mangues, sive Mangles et earum qualitatibus," Piso de- 

 scribes their habitat as " in swampy places by the sea in the Indies 

 and all the tropics." He quotes Clusius and also says there are three 

 species of mangles. " Prima, Cereiba, quse Mangue est alba ; 

 Secunda Cereibiina, quje non radices ex ramis in terram agit, nee 

 tarn tortuoso plexu luxuriat." And the third, which is our R. 

 mangle, is called Mangue Guaparaiba. It is, according to the ac- 

 count, of larger size than the two preceding species and bears use- 

 less pods in the summer months, which are filled with bitter pulp. 



In 1650 Bauhin^*^ in his "Universal History of Plants" quotes 

 Oviedo and Lobez in giving a description of the tree and says: 

 " F. L. (Lobez) mentions a certain tree growing in the province of 

 Malay which they call ' Mangin,' bearing roots above, like stems," 

 Clusius questions whether this be our Indian fig but we (Bauhin) 

 put the mangin or mangle because of the closeness of the name to 

 mangle, with which tree it also seems to correspond, as Ferdinand 

 Lobez describes it." Du Tertre, 1667,^^ mentions the mangrove and 

 Rochfort, 1681,^* in the book of travels in the Antilles describes the 

 tree, called paratuvier, and its rooting habits, and says : " Wild boars 

 and other savage beasts live in them, and they afford places of 

 shelter for the inhabitants, who lie in wait to surprise a person ap- 



^^ Piso, G., and Alarcgraf de Liebstad, "Hist. Nat. Brasilise," pp. 113-114, 

 1648. 



^•^ Bauhin, J., " Hist. Plant. Universalis," 1650. 



1" Du Tertre, J. B., " Historic generate des Antilles," Vol. IV., 1667. 



^8 Rochfort, F., " Histoire Naturelle et Morale des Isles Antilles," p. 100, 

 1681. 



