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activity, but to be always growing, so that flowers and fruit may 

 be found upon it at almost any time. If you will examine the 

 flowers you will find that they have four sepals and petals, and 

 present an appearance not unlike many other flowers with which 

 you are acquainted. But look further, and you will find hanging 

 to the tree numbers of club-shaped bodies six to eight inches 

 long, or even longer, in the manner shown in the fourth illustra- 

 tion of this article, where in the higher branches these may be 





Fig. I. Showing hypocotyls and mangroves in various stages of development. 



clearly seen. It is these odd bodies which are peculiar to the 

 mangrove, and which lend to it its great interest, but what are 

 they ? They are really young plants, for the seeds of the man- 

 grove germinate while still in the ovary, the developing embryo 

 finally bursting through the apex of the ovary and producing 

 these long club-shaped bodies, known to botanists as hypocotyls. 

 It is not the hypocotyl which is peculiar to the mangrove, for 

 this is found in all young plants, but it is the great and unusual 



