192 



HUTCHINSON'S POPULAR BOTANY 



smothering it, in fact, by its profuse branching when it has reached the top 

 of the tree. 



Of plants which attain to the dignity of trees, none perhaps exhibits 

 such a prodigality of adventitious air-roots as the time-honoured Banyan 

 (Ficus indica, p. 193). It is of this tree that Milton finely says : 



The bended twigs take root, and daughters grow 

 About the mother tree ; a pillared shade 

 High over-arched, and echoing walks between. 

 There oft the Indian herdsman, shunning heat, 

 Shelters in cool, and tends his pasturing herds 

 At loop-holes cut through thickest shade. 



The parent tree, in fact, gives off aerial roots from its branches, as small 

 tender fibres, which, increasing in length and thickness, presently reach the 

 earth and pierce their way into it. The parts above-ground continue to 

 grow thicker and thicker, till they attain the girth of large trunks, when 

 they themselves become parent trees by sending out new branches from the 

 top, and these in turn send down aerial roots, which undergo similar 



Photo by] 



[E. Step. 



FIG. 244. FLOWERS OF IVY (Hedera helix). 



The Ivy does not flower until it has surmounted its support, and the five-pointed leaves of the climbing stem have 



been succeeded by the lance-shaped leaves that mark its growth as a bush. The wide-open flowers are much visited 



by honey-loving insects of many kinds. EUROPE, N. AFRICA, ASIA. 



