ON THE SEA-SHORE. 253 



no springy mat lying upon the mud, but every 

 forking aerial root strikes downward, spreading a 

 little it is true as it reaches the mud, but leaving 

 almost bottomless mud holes between. The only 

 possible means of getting through such a jungle 

 is by crawling from one arched buttress to another 

 at the risk of continual slips, and with a result 

 which is only describable as being "up to your 

 eyes in mud." 



Unlike the courida, the mangrove does not 

 attempt to keep back the water it seems to 

 know that any attempt of the kind would not 

 only be rash, but sure to end in its destruction. 

 When the floods come to meet the tide there is 

 such a churning that it would seem impossible for 

 anything to stand in the way, yet the mangrove 

 remains securely at anchor. To do this, however, 

 it has had to give up all the traditions and examples 

 of other trees, and live without a body or trunk. 

 True, there is a main stem, but it is very small in 

 proportion to the spread of branches, and is hardly 

 distinguishable from the larger buttresses which 

 extend outward and downward like the long legs 

 of a spider without its bloated abdomen. Like the 

 trunk of the courida, these buttresses are some- 

 what elastic, and are thus able to stand the turmoil 

 of a flood, when, if they were at all brittle, they 



