40 CONCHOLOGIST’S COMPANION. 
mangrove as a place of refuge and security. Some 
naturalists affect to treat this statement as one of un~ 
certain origin, but the solution is by no means difficult. 
In hot countries, a great variety of shrubs and lofty 
trees grow on the margin of the rivers, and even 
among loose stones and sand, to the very edge of 
the sea; particularly in such places as are screened 
from the agitation of the waves. The sheltered 
recesses of bays and harbours are therefore often 
filled with abundance of lofty mangroves, which 
grow up from the shallow bottom, and present the 
beautiful appearance of marine forests. Wherever 
they appear on the sea shore, the beach is not only 
covered with an infinite number of molluscz and 
different marine insects,—feeble beings which love 
the shade, and a faint light,—but also with shell-fish, 
that hasten to shelter themselves from the violence of 
the waves amid the scaffolding of thick and inter- 
twining roots, which rise like lattice-work above the 
surface of the water, or the branches that dip into 
it. And to these the parasitic oysters attach them- 
selves in such numbers, that a branch, when cut off, 
is frequently too heavy for one individual to carry. 
The loaded branch is then washed, and brought to 
table, where it constitutes a favourite appendage at 
the banquets of the rich; for the glowing tints, which 
nature so liberally scatters over the birds and flowers 
