chap, vn] GERMINATION OF MANGROVES 



rising vertically out of the slush. At first they might be taken for 

 young plants shooting up, but they show no trace of leaves. They 

 are really organs produced mostly by the roots of the Sonneratia, 

 and are always to be found where this tree grows. It appears, 

 moreover, that all plants growing in estuaries influenced by the 

 tide produce analogous root-appendages. Avicennia and Carapa 

 have root-horns which are shorter, broader, and less pointed than 

 those of Sonneratia, but are otherwise identical. 1 



Entering the trusan of Mattang, the arboreal vegetation is found 

 to consist exclusively of mangroves, belonging to the species already 

 mentioned. Only from good photographs can one realise the 

 curious mode of growth of these trees and the intricate 

 system of roots they exhibit. From the trunk, as well as from 

 the larger branches, innumerable roots as large as a stout walking- 

 stick are produced, which arch over to plunge into the water or 

 mud below. From these larger roots smaller ones arise, and every- 

 where are produced in such abundance that the whole forest to a 

 height of some ten or twelve feet is densely packed with them. 

 From the obstacle that these roots and the mud present, a mangrove 

 swamp is one of the most difficult and fatiguing things in the world 

 to traverse. To live in it would be the most abominable of existences, 

 if only for the myriads of mosquitoes that swarm in it. Its aspect 

 is singularly monotonous, weird, and desolate. All over the 

 world within the tropics it is the same. It must, however, be 

 admitted that the epiphytal vegetation in a mangrove swamp is 

 often varied and interesting. Some of the most beautiful orchids 

 and the most singular ferns are found attached to mangroves, oh 

 which in Sarawak I found also Rhododendron Brookeanum, a 

 lovely plant with large yellow flowers. 



Parasitical life on mangroves is favoured by the great and 

 constant dampness of the atmosphere, caused by the continual 

 evaporation under the action of a tropical sun. To this cause is 

 also to be attributed another strange peculiarity of the Rhizophorce, 

 which is that the seeds contained in their fruits germinate 

 whilst yet attached to the parent plant, and before falling to the 

 ground ; there being no interruption between the acts of flowering, 

 formation and ripening of the fruit, and germination of the seed. 

 From the centre of the glossy leaves at the extremity of the smaller 

 branches in all Rhizophorce hang green fusiform appendages, 

 varying in length from two to eighteen inches in the different 



1 Recently these organs have been diligently studied by Karsten and 

 Goebel, who consider them to be normal roots which grow upwards in search 

 of air instead of penetrating downwards into the soil. Their special function 

 would seem to be that of procuring oxygen for the plant to which they belong, 

 in order to supplement the small quantity of that gas obtained by the ordinary 

 roots in the mud. They have, therefore, been termed respiratorv roots. 



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