98 ASPECTS OF TROPICAL NATURE 



sago nor rice, are fain to live upon the pith of the seeds of this 

 tree, which they boil with fish, or the milk of the cocoa-nut. 

 The leaves are also eaten as a vegetable, and the wood forms 

 excellent palisades, particularly on a swampy soil, as the worm 

 soon fastens upon it when out of the water. 



Next to the mangroves, the bruguieras, the avicennias, the 

 gonneratias, and various species of palms, such as the Nipa fru- 

 ticans and the Phoenix paludosa, a dwarf date-tree, which lite- 

 rally covers the islands of the Sunderbunds, at the delta of the 

 Ganges, form conspicuous features in the marsh-forests of the 

 torrid zone. 



The magnificent Avicennia tomentosa, which, with a more 

 majestic growth than the rhizophora raises its crown to the 

 height of seventy feet, and is said to flourish throughout the 

 whole range of the tropics as far as the flood extends, mixes 

 with the mangroves, standing like them on overarching roots. 



The sonneratias (acida, alba) grows along the marshy banks 

 of the large rivers of India, the Moluccas, and New Gruinea ; 

 their roots spread far and wide through the soft mud, and at 

 various distances send up, like the avicennias, extraordinarily 

 long spindle-shaped excrescences four or five feet above the 

 surface. These curious formations spring very narrow from the 

 root, expand as they rise, and then become gradually attenu- 

 ated, occasionally forking, but never throwing out shoots or 

 leaves, or in any way resembling the parent root. For lining 

 insect-boxes and making setting-boards they are unequalled, as 

 the finest pin passes in easily and smoothly, and is held so 

 firmly and tightly, that there is no risk of the insects becoming 

 disengaged. In fact Nature, while forming them, seems to have 

 had the entomologist in view, and to have studied how to gratify 

 his wishes. 



