THE AUSTKALIAN MUSEUM MAGAZINE. 



37 



A garden clearing in the shelter afforded by a banyan. 



though they were ahiiost insensitive af- 

 ter their long drought. 



ROADS THROUGH THE FOREST. 



The shady paths winding over the is- 

 land are wonderfully beautiful, and 

 here and there i^resent glimpses of the 

 lagoon and the mountains which are 

 rare pictures of delicate colour an 1 

 charm. Sometimes they pass through 

 forests of palms which wall them in on 

 each side with a dense growth in every 

 stage, from tlie fresh, young shoots just 

 appearing above the ground to the tall 

 trees whose leaves form a canoioy over- 

 head, filtering the sunlight to gleam on 

 the sinning green undergrowth. Ever\ 

 now and again they pass under the 

 arching limbs of a banyan, whose huge 

 branches with their queer root-stems in- 

 tertwine like mighty serpents, and are 

 lost to sight in the scrub. 



TRAVELLING TREES. 



These Banyans grow downwards 

 rather than upwards as do most trees, 

 their life beginning in holes or forks of 

 other trees whither the seeds have heeu 

 carried by birds. From their elevated 

 positions they send down their first 

 roots — long trailing stems which feel 

 their wav earthwards along tlie trunk o^' 



Photo — E. A. Briggs. 



tlieir host. As the parasite thrives, it 

 increases its stranglehold upon tlie sup- 

 porting tree, which is gradually enve- 

 loped in a tangle of root-stems and dies. 

 The wide-spreading branches of the now 

 established banyan likewise give off ad- 

 ventitious roots, which unite to form 

 flexible, roi5e-like stems fifty feet in 

 length, and so strong that, when no 

 thicker than a finger, they will liear 

 one's weight. If these touch one another 

 they coalesce and so vary greatly in 

 tliickness, while, once they have reached 

 and become established in the ground, 

 they increase so rapidly in girth as to 

 become indistinguisha])le from the par- 

 ent trunk. 



By means of these root-stems, a l)an- 

 yan is enabled to spread itself over a 

 considerable area, which may l)e a 

 couple of acres in extent, and its trunks 

 may be counted by the dozen. Wlien its 

 older parts decay and their cnnnecfing 

 l)ran('he.*. become severed, the original 

 tree is divided into twt) or nijre 

 younger portions, which continue to 

 sj)read throughout the forest upon their 

 stilt-like stems in such a way that one 

 can imagine them gradvially travelling' 

 over a considerable area in a sj^ace of 

 nuuiv hundreds of vears. 



