THE MANGROVE-TREE. 
109 
a reticulated bower, which a prurient fancy might 
take to be the abode of dryads, hamadryads, and 
water-fairies. The interlacings of these shoots are 
sometimes so thick, that nothing larger than a small 
reptile could pass between them. They are fre- 
quently covered with oysters, and it is no uncom- 
mon thing for the crews of boats to gather from these 
strange beds a generous meal of those crustaceous 
luxuries. 
The seed of the mangrove-tree begins to germinate 
while the fruit in which it is enclosed is yet hanging 
from the branch. At the top of the cell that confines 
the seed a minute fibre gradually protrudes to the 
length of ten or twelve inches. This process con- 
tinues, in fact, until the weight of the mass separates 
it from the parent branch, and it falls vertically into 
the mud, the seed being disengaged from the cell in 
which it was enclosed, when the soft loam that covers 
it quickly excites the germinating principle. 
These trees frequently grow in such thick clusters 
as to form an impenetrable grove. Upon one of the 
branches of that represented in the vignette, when I 
saw it, there was a large Adjutant, a bird of the 
crane kind very common in India, but of which some 
account to the mere English reader may not be un- 
welcome. 
This bird is full five feet high, and when the wings 
are extended, measures nearly fifteen feet from one 
extremity to the other. The bill, which opens far 
back into the head, is of so vast a size, that it will 
readily enclose a full-grown goose : it is near three 
feet long. The head and neck of this bird are bare, 
L 
