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O c 4 MANGROVES. 



The tree grows again as often as it is cut down, 

 if the root is not injured, and with such rapidity 

 that the supply of the wood will, for a length of 

 time — I mean unless the destruction of the 

 plant becomes more extensive than it is at pre- 

 sent — be fully adequate to the demand for it. 

 The fish forsake those parts to which the trees 

 are brought to be cut up for fire-wood. This 

 may be judged to proceed from the properties 

 of the bark. In a fish-pen (cural de peixe) near 

 to my place, no fish was caught after the fuel- 

 cutters had established themselves at the bridge 

 hard by ; of this I heard much, as there was 

 some squabbling upon the subject. The ashes 

 of the mangrove plants are used as temper in the 

 sugar-boiling houses.* 



* Labat in his Nouveau Voyage aux Isles de VAmerique 

 gives an elaborate account of the mangrove plants. He 

 speaks of three species, and treats in the first place of the 

 mangle noir ou paletuvier. To this tree he applies precisely 

 what I should say of the mangue vermelho or red mangrove, 

 with respect to its manner of growing, and to the description 

 of the plant altogether, excepting in regard of the bark, 

 which he states in the mangle noir tc be fort brunc, whereas 

 the red mangrove derives its name from the red colour of 

 the inside of the bark. He says that it is used for tanning, 

 and " on peut se servir du tronc de cet arbre pour les ouvrages 

 oil Von a besoin d'un bois qui resiste H I'eau." torn. ii. p. 195 

 and 197. I suppose he concluded that this would be so^as 

 the wood grew in the water. Now the mangues with which 

 I am acquainted soon rot, even in salt water, when used as 

 stakes ; for although the trees are propagated by means of 

 shoots, if a part of the stem of one of them is put into the 

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