10 



Normally these roots are thicker below than above, i. e., on 

 the youngest part. Others may be seen smallest in the middle, 

 and still, others irregularly thickened. They are almost in- 

 variably straight, either vertical or oblique, and the latter direc- 

 tion is probably caused by the gardeners, who anchor the tips 

 somewhat out of the vertical. 



When the prop roots are crowded, the amount of fusion may be 

 very great. For example, two prop roots originate near each 

 other on the same branch, about 35 feet from the ground. They 



Fig. 31. AwemiQ oi VsLlm.yTa.-pB.lms, Borassus flabelUformis. Ceylon. 



are fused for about twelve feet before separation. Ten feet 

 below, they pass on different sides of a lateral branch, and both 

 fuse with it. This branch also produces a prop root, which 

 fuses with both the others, and there are other fusions among 

 the three or their branches near the ground. 



The main "trunk" of this banyan is over ten feet in diameter, 

 and the peripheral fusion of the roots which compose it is so 

 extensive and so complete that in many places it is shown only 

 by elliptical cavities, extending through the peripheral root 

 system, and usually more or less filled with termite deposits. 



Other species of banyans differ, of course, in the details of 

 behavior. They all agree in providing, on the horizontal 



