124 



TROPICAL PLANTS 



The trunk of several tropical trees offers the remarkable 

 peculiarity of bulging out in the middle like a barrel. In the 

 Brazilian forests, the Pao Barrigudo {Chorisia ventricosa) 

 arrests the attention of every traveller by its odd ventricose 

 shape, nearly half as broad in the centre as long, and gradually 

 tapering towards the bottom and the top, whence spring a few 

 thin and scanty branches. 



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Bottle-Tree. 



The Delabechea, or bottle-tree, discovered by Mr. Mitchell in 

 tropical Australia, has the same lumpish mode of growth. Its 

 wood is of so loose a texture, that when boiling water is poured 

 over its shavings a clear jelly is formed and becomes a thick 

 viscid mass. 



In other trees which, struggling upwards to air and light, 

 attain a prodigious altitude, or from their enormous girth and 

 the colossal expansion of their branches require steadying from 

 beneath, we find buttresses projecting like rays from all sides of 

 the trunk. They are frequently from six to twelve inches thick, 



