478 



HISTORY OF THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 



It was a goodly sight to see 

 That venerable tree, 

 For o'er the lawn, irregularly spread. 

 Fifty straight columns propt its lofty head; 

 And many a long depending shoot 

 Seeking to strike its root. 

 Straight, like a plummet, grew towards the ground. 

 Some on the lower boughs, which crost their way, 

 Fixing their bearded fibres, round and round. 

 With many a ring and wild contortion wound: 

 Some to the passing wind, at times, with away 



Of gentle motion swung; 

 Others of younger growth, unmov'd, were hung 

 Lifee stone-drops from the cavern's fretted height. 

 Beneath was smooth and fair to sight, 

 Nor weeds nor briers deform'd the natural floor; 

 And through the leafy cope which bower'd it o'er 

 Came gleams of chequer'd light. 

 So like a temple did it seem, that there 

 A pious heart's first impulse would be prayer." * 



Some specimens of the Indian fig tree are 

 mentioned as being of immense magnitude. One 

 near Mangee, twenty miles to the westward of 

 Patna, in Bengal, spread over a diameter of 370 

 feet. The entire circumference of the shadow 

 at noon was 1116 feet, and it required 920 feet 

 to surround the fifty or sixty stems by which 

 the ti'ee was supported. Another covered an 

 area of 1700 square yards; and many of almost 

 equal dimensions are found in different parts of 

 India and Cochin China, where the tree grows 

 in the greatest perfection. The fruit is small, 

 not exceeding the size of a hazle nut, and is of 

 no use. 



The Mangrove (rhizophora mangle). Dode- 

 candria, monogynia, of Linnseus. This singular 

 tree is a native of the East Indies and other tro- 

 pical climates, where it gi-ows in swampy situa- 

 tions on the coast, and penetrates even within 

 low water mark of the sea. It attains the height 

 of forty to fifty feet, and is an evergreen. 



Dampier thus gives an accurate description of 

 it. " The red mangrove groweth commonly by 

 the sea side, or by rivers or creeks. It always 

 grows out of many roots, about the bigness of a 

 man's leg, some bigger, some less, which, at about 

 six, eight, or ten feet above the ground, join into 

 one trunk or body, that seems to be supported 

 by so many artificial stakes. Where this sort 

 of tree grows it is impossible to march, by rea- 

 son of these stakes, which grow so mixed one 

 among another, that I have, when forced to go 

 through them, gone half a mile and never set my 

 foot on the ground, stepping from root to root. 

 The timber is hard, and good for many uses. 

 The inside of the bark is red, and it is used for 

 tanning of leather very much all over the West 

 Indies." 



What adds to the singularity of this tree is, 

 that the seeds begin to germinate and send out 

 roots while they are yet attached to the parent 



* Southey's Curse of Kehama. 



branches. This is the natural way in which the 

 tree is propagated, by their roots descending and 

 fixing themselves in the earth. The mangrove 

 gave rise to the fable of oysters growing from 

 trees, because, from its situation on the sea shores, 

 and within tide mark, it becomes a favourite 

 resort of those shell-fi.sh, which cling to its 

 branches, and thus have the appearance of grow- 

 ing from them.t 



An extract has been prepared by boiling the 

 bark in water, and then evaporating the solution 

 till it becomes of the consistence of pitch. This 

 extract is said to possess the tanning property in 

 a very perfect degree; and by being prepared on 

 the spot where the tree grows, a great saving of 

 carriage and other expenses might be made. 



The Umbrella Tree (magnolia tripelata), a 

 species of magnolia, a native of North America, 

 has received this name from the form and posi- 

 tion of its leaves. These leaves are from twelve 

 to fifteen inches long, and five to six inches in 

 breadth, narrowing to a point at each extremity, 

 and placed at the ends of the branches in a cir- 

 cular manner, like an umbrella. The flowers, 

 like all those of the magnolia family already 

 described, are large, and of a beautiful white 

 colour. 



There is another tree, a native of India, which 

 has also obtained the name of umbrella tree from 

 the form of its branches, which spread out near 

 the top into a close and very regular flat dome 

 or circle. This tree affords the natives a shade 

 from the sun, or a protection from the rain, and 

 in this respect serves the pui-pose of an umbrella, 



TheBoabob, adansonia digitata; monodelphia, 

 polyandria, of Linnsus, is a native of Western 

 Africa, and is likewise said to be found in Egypt 

 and Abyssinia ; it is cultivated in many of the 

 wanner parts of the world. There seems to be 

 no doubt but that it is the largest known tree, 

 its trunk being sometimes not less than thirty 

 feet in diameter. 



In Adanson's account of Senegal, some calcu- 

 lations are made regarding the growth of this 

 tree, founded on the evidence of the annular 

 layers. The height of its trunk by no means 

 corresponds with the thickness which it attains. 

 Thus, according to his calculations, at one year 

 old its diameter is one inch, and its height five 

 inches; at thirty years old it has attained a 

 diameter of two feet, while its height is only 

 twenty-two feet, and so on; till, at 1,000 years 

 old, the boahob is fourteen feet broad, and fifty- 

 eight feet high; and at 5,000 years the growth 

 laterally has so outstripped its perpendicular 

 height, that the trunk will be thirty feet in 

 diameter, and only seventy-three feet high. The 

 roots, again, are of a most extraordinary length ; 

 so that in a tree with a stem seventy-seven feet 



t See Plato VII., Fig. 9. 



