86 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



[Part 1. 



clate-palm, wliicli literally covers tlie islands of the 

 Sunderbimcls at the delta of the Ganges. A dense 

 growth of mangroves ^ occupies the shore, beneath whose 

 overarching roots tlie ripple of the sea washes unseen 

 over the muddy beach. 



Eetiring from the strand, there are groups of Sonne- 

 ratia ^, Avicennia, Heritiera, and Pandanus ; the latter 

 with a stem like a dwarf palm, round which the serrated 

 leaves ascend in spkal convolutions till they terminate 

 in a pendulous crown, from Avhich drop the amber 

 clusters of beautiful but uneatable fruit, with a close 

 resemblance in shape and colour to that of the pine- 

 apple, from which, and from the pecuhar arrangement 

 of the leaves, the plant has acquired its name of the 

 Screw-pine. 



&c. In the identification of the spe- 

 cies Mr. Thwaites is to be assisted 

 by Dr. Hooker, F. II. S. ; and from 

 their conjoint labours we may at last 

 hope for a production wortliy of the 

 subject. 



' Ehizophora Candelaria, Kandelia 

 Eheedei, Brug-uiera g^nunorhiza. 



^ At a meeting of the Entomo- 

 logical Society in 1842, Dr. Tem- 

 pleton sent, for the use of the 

 members, many thin slices of sub- 

 stance to replace cork-wood as a 

 lining for insect cases and drawers. 

 Along with the soft wood he sent the 

 following notice : — " In this country 

 (he wiites from Colombo, Ceylon, 

 May 19, 1842), along the marshy 

 banks of the large rivers, gi-ows a 

 very large handsome tree, named 

 Smmeratia acicla by the younger 

 Linnteus ; its roots spread far and 

 wide through the soft moist earth, 

 and at various distances along send 

 up most extraordinary long spindle- 

 shaped excrescences four or five feet 

 above the surface. Of these Sir 

 James Edward Smith remarks, ' what 

 those horn-shaped excrescences are 

 which occupy the soil at some dis- 

 tance from the base of the tree, from 

 a span to a foot in length and of a 

 corky substance, as described by 

 Itumphius, we can offer no conjec- 



tm"e.' Most curious things (remarks 

 Dr. Templeton) they arej they all 

 spring very narrow from the root, 

 expand as they rise, and then become 

 gradually attenuated, occasionally 

 forking, but never throwing out 

 shoots or leaves, or in any respect 

 resembling the parent root or wood. 

 They are firm and close in their tex- 

 ture, nearly devoid of fibrous struc- 

 tm'e, and take a moderate polish 

 when cut with a sharp iustnmient ; 

 but for lining insect boxes and 

 making setting-boards thej^ have no 

 equal in the world. The finest pin 

 passes in with delightful ease and 

 smoothness, and is held firmly and 

 tightly so tliat there is no risk of the 

 insects becoming disengaged. With 

 a fine saw I form them into little 

 boards and then smooth them with a 

 sharp case knife, but the London 

 veneering-mUls would tmii them out 

 tit for immediate use, without any 

 necessity for more than a touch of 

 fine glass-paper. Some of my pigmy 

 boards are two feet long by three 

 and a half inches wide, which is more 

 than sufficient for our purpose, and 

 to me they have proved a vast ac- 

 quisition. The natives call them 

 ' Kirilimow,' the latter syllable signi- 

 fying root." — Teiipleton-, Trans. 

 Ent, Soc. vol. iii. p. •'^02. 



