SEED AND EOOT 



201 



Photo fry] [E. Step. 



FIG. 253. BIECH (Betula alba). 



This tree being blown down in a gale continued to send out new branches which took a vertical direction, also 

 sending new roots into the soil. 



aerial germination of their seeds, which do not quit their lofty cradle till 

 they have assumed the form of actual trees,* and drop into the water 

 with their roots ready prepared to take possession of the mud, in advance 

 of their parent stems." 



An old English navigator that able, trustworthy writer, William 

 Dampier thus describes the tree : " The red Mangrove groweth commonly 

 by the seaside, or by rivers or creeks. It always grows out of many roots, 

 about the bigness of a man's leg, some bigger, some less, which, at about 

 six, eight, or ten feet above the ground, join into one trunk or body, that 

 seems to be supported by so many artificial stakes. Where this sort 

 of tree grows it is impossible to march, by reason of these stakes, which 

 grow so mixed one among another, that I have, when forced to go 

 through them, gone half a mile and never set my foot on the ground, 

 stepping from root to root." Kingsley describes a Mangrove swamp as a 

 desolate pool, round which the Mangrove roots form an impenetrable net. 

 As far as the eye can pierce into the tangled thicket, the roots interlace 



* Hardly " trees." It would be more correct to say, " till they attained to a considerable 

 size." 



