Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va) 1886-1890, 1889-12-15
WONDERFUL TREES.
MYSTERIOUS ARE somE OF NAT
uRE'S WOODEN WORKS.

Pcculiari;ies of The Monkey Bread Tree.
A Giant of the Forest That sheltered
$4,000 Soldiers The Great Calamity
Whicl, Overlook the sacred go Of Ceylon.
Australia has a species Of baobab, or
monkey bread tree. but it is only in AZ
ria, along the Congo river, that the
.aobab grows TO perfection. Like the
.",nnlbal tree. the baobab grows all out
proportion. Its average height is
II. forty feet. but like the putchman
Prnzance it is las big north and
nh as it is Up and down. tr&relers
~; Specimens Of the tree ninety
IA circumference. Old haohabs,
i their singing branches. resemble
sal forest more than they Go 4 single
t HumhoIdt considered item the
alI-; living organic mountains on our
4aA-J. setting down the ages Of sev-
: crd of those examined by himself al not
.,1asS than 5000 years. \ room large
E Rough 10 furnish comfortable accom-
odations for thirty men las been cut
iul in the trunk of baobab which con-
,iaued to live and flourish.
\ tree of this species planted at Kew
Gardens in England about the beginning
of the present century has been the
whole of the eighty odd years attaining
height Of less than FIVE feet, which
proves to the satisfaction of any fair
minded man that English soil is not
adapted to the extensive culture OF mon
aev bread. The fruit Of the baobab tree,
The monkey bread itself, is about the
size and shape of a common Hubbard
N squash. and is said to be farinaceous and
savery nutritious Taking its diameter
and circumference into consideration,
and saying nothing about tie height.
the baobab may be set down as the larS-
est species of tree in the world.
Those of my readers who are ac-
ouainted with Southey's works will re-
member his beautiful description of the
banyan tree in his poem, The Curse OF
Kehama." For great many years the
banyal4 tree was described by natural
ists.as being species of the baobab, but
is now regarded as species wholly diff
, ferent, and as belonging to the palm
family. If it were not for the promise
4 made in the opening not TO designate
any one of the wonderful trees as the
4 most wonderful Of all trees, the appella-
4ion would certainly be applied to the
banyan, which is not tree, but 4 whole
system of trees. 1t seems 10 he inclined
to grow downward instead OF upward,
as the trees do with which we are &C.
uuainted' It is said to seldom spring up
from the SOIL but from the heads of
feather, brush, peacock-tail and other
species of palm, the seed having been de-
posted there by birds and taken root in
the damp, pulpy crown, so characteristic
of trees of the palm family. The banyan,
as limited above, does not seem to want
to grow up, but down. As soon as the
branches begin to put forth from the
crown of the palm i'll which their germ
has found lodging place, they commence
to hunt for the ground, each branch TAX
ing root as soon as it touches the damp,
moist soil Ct being native of India, a
fact which / have neglected to state).
AS these roofing branches begin to re-
eceige nourishment they grow with
amazing rapidity and send out dozens
and hundreds of other branches, which,
like the parent stem, take roofs ID soon
form a wilderness; a single b. Jan tree
ON the banks Of the river Krishna being
provided with over 900 stems, 33sel, ,in
i taeni being as large as the colanaaf D e
re fhe Mississipp valley. at t1@