PHYSIOLOGY OF THE RED MANGROVE. 599 



preaching along the coast." Rochfort also gives a very poor illus- 

 tration of a tree with a boar at its root. 



Van Rheede, 1678/^ saw the tree in Malabar where it was called 

 pee-kandel and grows there with five other species of kandel, now 

 all identified as various viviparous trees. The bark was used as a 

 cure for diabetes. 



Ray, 1693,-° gives a long and fairly accurate account of the tree 

 under the head " Mangle Pyri f oliis, cum siliquis longis, Ficui In- 

 dicae afiinis. J. B. (Bauhin) ]\Iangues, seu [Mangles; tertia species 

 Guaparaila dicta, Pison. Paretuvier, Rochfort. Oviedus." 



" The Mangrove Tree. — This tree is among those which are com- 

 monly found in Western India, very much selected for the making, 

 of buildings and other uses. It grows in marshy places, on the 

 shores of the sea, on the salt flats of rivers. . . . The leaves are simi- 

 lar to the larger leaves of a pear, but thicker and a little larger, 

 opposite to each other, and have a thick mid-rib and many lateral 

 veins, light green. It bears many small flowers on oblong calyces. 

 The pods are two palms long and more, and these are thick, like 

 those of cassia, equal to the first and of a rusty color ; having a 

 pulp like curds or similar to the marrow of bones, which the In- 

 dians, on account of a lack of other foods, feed upon. Even though 

 it is bitter, they prepare it into a healthful food." 



Ray then quotes the experience of Oviedo and Clusius in eating 

 it, and goes on to say " the fallen fruit is the food of land crabs 

 rather than men. But the nature of the tree is wonderful, for sev- 

 eral grow at the same time and many branches seem to turn down 

 and become roots . . . , which take hold and in turn grow other 

 branches and these, in truth, are no less firmly established than the 

 original trunk of the tree. . . . The wood is heavy and solid and has 

 a brownish bark which is used for tanning leathers instead of oak, 

 as there is no kind of oak found in these lands." The writer goes 

 on and dilates on the uses of the tree and says : " The root of the 

 tree which is soft and moist is split and peeled and applied warm 

 to the poisonous wound of the fish, Niquus. It quiets the pain 

 and restores the injured member, but although it may provoke pain 



19 Van Rheede, H.. " Hortus Malabaricus," 1678. 



20 Ray, John, "Hist. Plant," Vol. H., p. 1772, 1693. 



