96 
AMERICAN MANGLE. 
Candela americana foliis laurinis. Catesby’s Carol., vol. 2. 
p. 63. t. 63. 
Mangle aquatica, foliis subrotundis et punctatis. Plumiek, 
Gen. p. 13. Sloane, Jam. p. 155. Hist. vol. 2 . p. 63. 
Margue Guapariba. Piso’s Brazil, 1. 4. c. 87. R. 
This tree is found in the maritime swamps of Louisi- 
ana and East Florida, and along the coast of Texas, not 
uncommon. The Mangrove, like the famous Banyan 
Fig, sends out innumerable roots from the fusiform fruits 
which terminate its branches into the surrounding 
marshes, so that after a while a single tree becomes, as 
it were, the parent of a whole forest of several miles in 
extent; and growing well even into the salt water, it is 
not unfrequent to see their branches loaded with oysters 
(the Ostrea folium ) of an exquisite flavour. Those 
thickets likewise afford a resort for various kinds of 
sea-fowl, and fringing the margin of the ocean and the 
salt pools with their spreading summits, they give a 
peculiar feature to the tropical landscape, but at the 
same time afford shelter to clouds of musquetoes. The 
bark and fruit are useful for tanning; the flower, accord- 
ing to Loureiro, dyes a very durable black, and, accord- 
ing to Sloane, affords a material for ink. 
The Mangrove of the West Indies and tropical Ame- 
rica becomes a tree about 40 to 50 feet high, and 2 
to 3 feet in diameter, with a ferruginous bark and 
white wood of no great value, except for fuel, yet, ac- 
cording to Sloane, the wood is good for building and 
shingles. The wood of that of India, as described by 
Roxburgh in his Flora Indica, is of a dark reddish colour, 
hard, and durable. 
The Mangrove is not very tall, but very branching, 
the branches almost always opposite, elongated and 
pendant. When touching the soil, they strike root and 
become new trees, which re-multiply themselves in the 
