35© FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. 



plant are produced in clusters, and have the form of 

 crimson cones, not unlike those of the larch. 1 



The first announcement of such a singular " freak 

 of plant-life " was received with some incredulity, but 

 when not only drawings but the plants themselves 

 arrived, the incredulity became changed to astonish- 

 ment ; and its whole history, unfolded in a most 

 complete and thoroughly illustrated memoir, 3 by Sir 

 Joseph Hooker, passed into the records of science as 

 one of the most remarkable discoveries of plant-life 

 which the present century has been able to produce. 



The tree which attains the greatest lateral expan- 

 sion is the Indian fig, or banyan, which drops down 

 rope-like shoots from their branches, and these, when 

 they reach the soil, enter it and take root, thus 

 becoming in the course of time subsidiary trunks. 

 The increase in this manner might also be supposed 

 to be indefinite, by the addition of new trunks, as 

 the branches extend themselves. Milton has alluded 

 to this tree as — 



The fig-tree ; not that kind for fruit renowned ; 

 But such as at this day, to Indians known 

 In Malabar or Deccan, spreads her arms, 

 Branching so broad and long, that in the ground 

 The bended twigs take root, and daughters grow 

 About the mother tree, a pillafd shade 

 High overarch'd, and echoing walks between. 



1 Welwitsch, " West. African Botany." " Journ. Linn. Society,'- 

 v. p. 185. ? Hooker in "Linncean Transactions." 



