28G BOTANICAL NOTES. 



which, on reacliing the ground, foim natural arches. These lofty- 

 trees, as I have alieady remarked, meet together overhead to form 

 a Jeafy screen, whicli, whilst it excludes the direct rays of the sun, 

 admits and confines both the moisture and the heat. This con- 

 servatory of nature contains within its own precincts the conditions 

 for its preservation. Here tlie young tree grows up, its safety 

 ensured, until at length it becomes a pillar in the edifice in which it 

 was itself reared. The open character of the wood and the absence 

 of scrub and undergrowth, more especially on level ground, have- 

 often been a cause of surprise to me. I have often walked without 

 impediment through the gloom}' corridors of such a forest, brushing 

 past the huge trunks of the tallest trees, and winding in and out 

 amongst the palms that number as many years in age as their 

 giant compeers count decades. 



On first treading in such a forest, the visitor is much impressed 

 by the imposing appearance and rsize of the banyans and the- 

 buttress-trees, ^^'itll mingled feelings of awe and pity he will jier- 

 ceive that between these monarchs of the forest there is waged an 

 unequal struggle, in which the huge buttress-tree always succumbs 

 to the rouo-h embraces of its foe. He will observe all the staires in 

 the struggle. Here the buttress-tree may be seen in its prime, but 

 in part embraced at its lower part by the tightly clasping offshoots 

 of the young banyan. Further on, in the midst of the interlacing 

 columns of the banyan, the buttress-tree may be seen partially 

 strangled. Dry rot has attacked its trunk reaching almost to the core, 

 so that a shcath-knife sinks readily up to the handle in its substance; 

 yet, far overhead the wide-spreading branches of this forest potentate 

 are covered with green foliage, and still wave defiantly in the trade. 

 In the prolonged contest the buttress-tree is dying liard, and in fiict 

 it is the stout investing trunks of the banyan that alone hold its 

 victim erect. Near by may be another banyan of larger size and 

 presenting tlie appearance of a maze of columns which may cover 

 an area thirty to forty feet across. Its victim has long since dis- 

 appeared, and a hollow in the centre of the maze of stems alone 

 marks the former situation of the huge buttress-tree. 



What finer or more impressive simile could be employed to illus- 

 trate the gradual degeneration and final downfall of a nation under 

 the choking influences of vice, corruption, luxury, and misgovernment? 

 A mighty forest tree is slowly strangled by the caresses of an insidi- 

 ous creeper. With advancing decay its tottering stem is alone sup- 



