93 
The baby plants of this tree are so anxious to get out 
into the world, that they do not wait until the seeds in 
which they are hidden are set free from the mangrove 
fruit. 
It is as if the little plants inside the apple seed could 
not wait until the apple flesh should be eaten or 
should decay, but insisted on struggling first out of 
). the seed into the apple, and then through the apple 
into the light and air. 
This picture (Fig. 102) shows you the mangrove 
fruit. It looks more like a pear than an apple In 
the middle of this lies hidden one seed. As time 
goes on, this grows bigger and bigger, trying to make 
room for the impatient little plant within; but it does 
not grow fast enough ttt 
. EO EEA 
to please this ambitious 9~< ~ 
oe . ‘ \ 
young one, which finally <7 "SSO 14 
overcomes the difficulty 
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7 
by piercing the seed shell 
with its stem. This stem 
bores its way right down through 
the mangrove fruit, and breaks into 
the outerair. It keeps on growing 
in this way for many weeks, till at last it is a 
foot long (Fig. 103). Try to fancy how odd a 
mangrove tree must look at this time, covered 
with mangroves, from each one projecting this 
long odd-looking beak, which one could hardly 
guess to be the stem of the baby plant within the fruit. 
We read that these long-beaked fruits bob about with 
every breath of wind in a fashion that gives the tree a 
FIG. 103 
