LETTER V. 



45 



ciple — nay. is in fact, that which obtains in a still 

 greater degree in all trees as soon as the woody bundles 

 reach the soil. At this point the bundles not only 

 group themselves into sets, but part company alto- 

 gether, spreading themselves in all directions in the 

 ground. Need I say how strikingly this process of 

 grouping identifies the bundles above ground with 

 those under ground, and imparts to both one common 

 character.* 



8. One other feature the bundles often present, allied 

 to that just mentioned, and not less remarkable in the 



^ The following passages from Wallace's Travels on the Amazon 

 (p. 23) furnish an admirable illustration of the statements in the 

 text : — " Among the trees, the various kinds that have buttresses 

 projecting around their base are the most striking and peculiar. 

 Some of these buttresses are much longer than they are high, spring- 

 ing from a distance of eight or ten feet from the base, and reaching 

 only four or five feet high on the trunk ; while others rise to the 

 height of twenty or thirty feet, and can even be distinguished as 

 ribs on the stem to forty or fifty. They are complete wooden walls, 

 from six inches to a foot thick, sometimes branching into two or 

 three, and extending straight out to such a distance as to afPord 

 room for a comfortable hut in the angle between them. 



Other trees, again, appear as if they were formed by a number 

 of slender stems growing togetlier. They are deeply furrowed and 

 ribbed for their whole height, and in places these furrows reach 

 quite through them, like v^ndows in a narrow tower ; yet they run 

 up as high as the loftiest trees of the forest, with a straight stem of 

 uniform diameter. Another most curious form is presented by those 

 which have many of their roots high above the surface of the ground, 

 appearing to stand on many legs, and often forming archways large 

 enough for a man to walk beneath." 



