MANGKOVES. 



23 



Bruigiera) which impart to the forests their physiognomic character, but rather a 

 species of Sonneratia. Whilst those form only low woods, this beautiful tree 

 attains as considerable a height as most of the forest trees of the neighbourhood, 

 spreading out the more stately as it does not form a regular stem, sympathising 

 as it were in a neighbourly way with the Nipa palm ; from its root rise several 

 equally strong and diverging stems, the lower branches of which, with their dense 

 foliage, almost touch the water, and the whole, so to speak, represents a huge 

 shrub. The dark bark of these colossal masses of wood forms a fine contrast with 

 the pale green foliage, the almost circular leaves of which have an especially 

 cheerful look. As long as these trees are in full vigour they are only here and 

 there covered with patches of dark green moss, an ornament rather in contradiction 

 with all other features as reminding us of our northern forests (7 c). But, as 

 soon as they begin to die, their trunks are covered with a number of fine epiphy- 

 tical ferns (3 b). Another singular feature of these trees are the wooden pegs which, 

 covered with a dark brown bark, rise to the height of about one foot, wherever the 

 ground is not under water. We have not been able to discover the significance 

 of these excrescences, which everywhere appeared to have the same form and look ; 

 they seemed to be connected with the deeper lying roots of the Sonneratia, of 

 which we could not observe any other stage of development. The stems of the 

 Rhizophora of this place generally grow quite erect, upon a scaffold of aerial roots, 

 almost as in some species of Pandanus (1 | 2 d; 9 | 10 d). Just above this scaf- 

 folding the branches diverge, mostly in a horizontal direction, sending roots down- 

 wards, which are covered with the same kind of bark as the branches themselves. 

 These roots look like turned pipe-stems, never have any excrescences or irregular 

 bents, and firmly establish themselves as soon as they reach the ground, but they 

 never form new stems, as is the case with the great fig-trees ; their object seems 

 simply to assist propping up the tree. The Bruigiera (also, as far as I know, where 

 only represented by one species) is less social, and attains for the most part a 

 much greater height than the Rhizophora, with which, however, it otherwise 

 completely corresponds in the shape of the leaf and in the formation of the smaller 

 branches. But, on the whole, its growth is more irregular and more resembles 

 that of the common deciduous trees ; its aerial roots also are less numerous and grow 



differently ^ f Such groves encircle, with a few interruptions, the shores of 



the island of Ualan, just above the surface of the water. Where the coral reef 

 surrounding the whole island is so low as to permit the waves to strike the land, a 

 sandy beach is formed, with a vegetation resembling that of the coral islands : but 



c 4 



