58 TROPICAL NATURE, AND OTHER ESSAYS. 



vegetables. They serve too for jars in whicli to preserve 

 sugar, salt, fruit, molasses, and cooked provisions ; and 

 for tlic smoker, excellent pipes and liookaks can be 

 formed in a few minutes out of properly chosen joints 

 of bamboo. 



These are only a sample of the endless purposes to 

 which the bamboo is applied in the countries of which 

 it is a native, its chief characteristic being that in a few 

 minutes it can be put to uses which, if ordinary wood 

 were used, would require hours or even days of labour. 

 There is also a regularity and a finish about it which is 

 found in hardly any other woody plant ; and its smooth 

 and symmetrically ringed surface gives an appearance 

 of fitness and beauty to its varied applications. On 

 the whole, we may perhaps consider it as the greatest 

 boon which nature gives to the natives of the Eastern 

 tropics. 



Mangroves. — Among the forms of plants which are 

 sure to attract attention in the tropics are the mangroves, 

 which grow between tide-marks on coasts and estuaries. 

 These are low trees with widely-spreading branches and 

 a network of aerial roots a few feet above the ground ; 

 but their most remarkable peculiarity is, that their fruits 

 germinate on the tree, sending out roots and branches 

 before falling into the muddy soil — a completely formed 

 plant. In some cases the root reaches the ground before 

 the seed above falls off. These trees greatly aid the 

 formation of new land, as the mass of aerial roots which 

 arch out from the stem to a considerable distance collects 

 mud and floating refuse, and so raises and consolidates 

 the shore ; while the young plants often dropping from 

 the farthest extremity of the branches, rapidly extend 



