POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
1()9 
Among the singularly beautiful and diversified vege¬ 
table productions that adorn the banks of the lake, the 
sacred aoa deserves particular attention \ it stands near 
the large temple of Tane, at Tamapua, and is one of the 
most ancient and extensive that I have met with in the 
islands. In its growth, the aoa resembles the banian tree 
of the East, and is probably a variety of the species. 
The bark has a light tinge and shining appearance, the 
leaf lance-shaped and small, of a beautiful pea-green 
colour. It is an evergreen, and is propagated by slips 
or branches, which readily take root. When the stem of 
the young tree is about two or three inches in diameter, 
the bark, immediately below the branches, which gene¬ 
rally spread from the trunk, about six feet above the 
ground, begins to open near the lower part of the limbs. 
A number of fine yellow pointed roots protrude, and 
increase in size and length every year. The branches 
grow horizontally, and rather bending than otherwise: 
from different parts of these, fibres shoot forth through 
the bursting bark, and hang like fine dark-brown threads. 
The habits of growth in these pendulous roots are 
singular. Sometimes they appear like a single line, or 
rope, reaching from the highest branches nearly to the 
ground, where they terminate in a bunch of spreading 
fibres, not unlike a tassel. At other times, while there 
is one principal fibre, a number of others branch off from 
this at unequal distances, from its insertion in the bough 
above, and terminate in a cluster of small fibres. The 
different threads are sometimes separate from each other 
for a considerable distance, and, near the bottom, unite 
in one single root. 
As soon as these depending fibres reach the ground, 
they take root, and, in the course of a number of years, 
II. 
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