86 ISLES OF SUMMER. 
taking root, and every new growth and stem being still a part 
of the parent tree to which it is ligamented as were the Siamese 
twins.” No doubt Mr. McArthur visited the tree he has under- 
taken to describe, and being a man of ability and literary culture, 
his testimony is that of a credible witness—and yet, he is con- 
tradicted by the facts. He was, as all are who see it, astonished 
and delighted to find a tree possessing such a peculiar habit of 
growth, and multiplying itself into a large grove or small forest. 
But he failed to make such a close and critical examination as 
was necessary in order to enable him to enlighten his readers in 
regard to the method by which the singular result is produced. 
Had he done so, he would have discovered that the branches do 
not ‘‘turn down to the earth and take root,” nor does “its 
top strike down and take root,” but from the outstretching 
branches, at various distances from the stem or trunk, roots de- 
scend a distance of from ten to fifteen feet through the air, fasten 
to the rocky bottom, enlarge from ycar to year, and thus by sin- ~ 
gle and clustered living columns support the immense branches 
from which as roots they descended. These roots thicken and 
enlarge as they grow, and we saw some on their way to the sur- 
face rocks from one to three inches in: diameter, bearded at the 
end with a long hairy fibrous covering, which, we presume, ab- 
sorb nutriment from the surrounding air. 
Milton makes a similar mistake, and if he did not originate 
the error he has given it a wide circulation. He refers to the 
Ficus Indica, but this tree also is extended by means of roots 
which the lateral branches send down to the ground from an 
elevation above it of a number of yards. In the following lines 
in Paradise Lost he has, in describing it, drawn in this respect 
upon his imagination: 
s 
