Bo tree

“ The mid-rib of the leaf is however prolonged some two inches into a narrow point, which is sometimes curved into quite a hook. The tremulous motion of the leaf and the general appearance of the tree also resemble the aspen, though the growth is somewhat sturdier. Thousands of bo-trees are planted all over India and Ceylon in memory of Buddha (though the tree was probably an object of veneration before his time) ; the ground is sacred where they stand, and a good Buddhist will on no account cut one down, however inconveniently it may be growing. ”

“ The moss is waist-high, the ferns wave twenty feet overhead, the bamboo drapes a feathery fringe by every stream, the cocoa trees grow right up to the road or railroad which sweeps along as on an avenue between them, while at every crossing the white roadway is lined by the majestic sentinels of plantain, coco-nut palm and breadfruit tree. ”

“ In the jungle there is no death, the leaves fall while they are still green, and in a night, lo! new ones take their place; an ancient tree falls, but the mighty trunk does not lie arid and stiff to be slowly covered with pale leathery lichens; hardly has it touched the ground before it is covered with a translucent shroud of tender green, which seems but a renewal and continuation of its own life; and before the burning sun shining through the gap can scorch the delicate orchids, the gap is closed by a new eager growth and a young tree springs from the earth upturned by the broken roots. ”

“ Where palms occur, it is almost always in groups; being a social tree, it loves the company of its species. So with the bamboo, which is found in the more swampy regions, but always in groups of its own family. These damp woods are the home of the orchids; it is here that they revel in moisture, clinging to the trunks of tall, columnar trees, fattening on decayed portions of the bark, but forming bits of lovely color, while about the stems of other forest monarchs wind creeping vines of rope-like texture, binding huge trunks in a fatal embrace. ”

“ The foliage at the far end of the forest aisle, a hundred feet from the massive oak tree, was merely enveloped for an instant in a blinding glare that spread outward until it filled every shadowed crevice and swaying vine-canopy between the tree and its point of origin. As it spread it became more diffuse and less blinding, until every boulder, plant and fallen log that it touched began to glow with a cold, almost spectral radiance. ”

“ Strange forms of vegetation drew our attention at almost every step. Amongst them were the different kinds of Bromelia, or pine-apple plants, with their long, rigid, sword-shaped leaves, in some species jagged or toothed along their edges. Then there was the bread-fruit tree—an importation, it is true; but remarkable from its large, glossy, dark green, strongly digitated foliage, and its interesting history. Many other trees and plants, curious in leaf, stem, or manner of growth, grew on the borders of the thickets along which lay our road ”

“ Tree life is gigantic, and the variety of wood infinite. Of the picturesque trees, the boabab, or monkey bread-fruit tree, whose crown of green sometimes forms a circle of over 100 feet, takes a front rank, followed by the ceiba, with its stem of 60 feet and its rich crown of foliage extending fully 60 feet further. ”

“ The aborigines, especially of the Osage tribe, in the middle Mississippi Valley, cherished these trees for their orange-yellow wood, which is hard, heavy, flexible, and strong—the best bow-wood to be found east of the Rocky Mountains. When the settlers came the sharp thorns with which the branches are effectually armed appealed strongly to the busy farmers and the tree was widely planted for hedges. ”

“ We traveled much more in the deep gloom of the forest than in open sunlight. No passage existed on either side of the narrow path made by the axe. Large climbing plants entwined themselves around the trunks and branches of gigantic trees like boa constrictors, and they often do constrict the trees by which they rise, and, killing them, stand erect themselves. The bark of a fine tree found in abundance here, and called "motuia", is used by the Barotse for making fish-lines and nets, and the "molompi", so well adapted for paddles by its lightness and flexibility, was abundant. ”

“ Beneath his massive form, colour is lost in shadowy but closer at hand are the dark pervading greens of the trees and vegetation, palms and tree ferns and banana trees helping by their graceful form to provide the truely tropical features, while the equally graceful clumps of bamboo sway and creak in the light breeze, their pointed leaves supplying that perpetual flutter and movement which one associates with the birches and beeches of one's native land. The cultivated patches on hillside and valley are rich in colour. ”

“ The curving of the edges of the bract toward the fruit enables the wind to catch it all the better, and to lift it more or less from the snow. With changes in the direction of the wind, there is an opportunity for the fruit of a single tree, if not too much crowded by others, to spread in all directions. After watching these maneuvers, no one could doubt the object of the bent bracts of the basswood, and as these vary much in length and width and shape on different trees, it would seem that perhaps nature is still experimenting with a view to finding the most perfect structure for the purpose. ”

“ Many stories are told of this tree which would make us believe it exerts an influence scarcely less baleful than that of the fabulous Upas tree of Borneo, popular superstition attributing to it the deadly disease of man and brute known as the “milk sickness.”
The base of the peak before me was skirted with thickets of this beautiful tree, intermingled with the dog-wood, then in the glory of its flower, and three or four varieties of the acacia and Canadian redbud. ”

“ In winter they descend the hills, and then their favourite haunts are in the thickest parts of the forests of oak, chestnut, and morenda pine, where the box-tree is abundant, and where under the forest trees a luxuriant growth of 'ringalt' or the hill bamboo forms an underwood in some places almost impenetrable. They keep in companies of from two or three to ten or a dozen or more, not in compact flocks, but scattered widely over a considerable space of forest, so that many at times get quite separated and are found alone. ”

“ The bog–garden is a home for the numerous children of the wild that will not thrive on our harsh, bare, and dry garden borders, but must be cushioned on moss, and associated with their own relatives in moist peat soil. Many beautiful plants, like the Wind Gentian and Creeping Harebell, grow on our own bogs and marshes, much as these are now encroached upon. But even those acquainted with the beauty of the plants of our own bogs have, as a rule, but a feeble notion of the multitude of charming plants, natives of northern and temperate countries, whose home is the open marsh or boggy wood. ”

“ The five-inch needles of this slow-growing Japanese evergreen spread out from new tip growth like the ribs of a half-open umbrella, giving it an airy distinction. The tree, a squat pyramid, with short branches and a stubby main trunk, is ideal for bonsai cultivation.
CARE. Grows well in most any soil but does better in one that has been enriched. As it is slow-growing, there is slight danger that it will outgrow its dwarf proportions. Transplant only when young and do not expose the roots. ”

“ BEAR-TREE, BAIR, &c. s. H. ber, Mahr. bora, in Central Provinces bor, [Malay bedara or bidara China,] (Skt. badara and vadara) Zizyphus jujuba, Lam. This is one of the most widely diffused trees in India, and is found wild from the Punjab to Burma, in all which region it is probably native. It is cultivated from Queensland and China to Morocco and Guinea. ”

“ Leaves ovate, smooth, dark green; leaf-stems hairy at edge. This plant is a native of Europe, and in its tree form furnishes the white wood used for wood-engraving.
Var. subfruticosa (dwarf boxwood) grows only a foot or two high, and is extensively used for edgings in gardens. The tree form is more rare in cultivation, and is of slow growth, but forms a round-topped tree. ”

“ As we have seen, the forester has to exercise considerable forethought—the outcome of long experience—in growing oak so as to obtain long, clean stems. The natural habit of the tree is to form a short, thick bole and a widely spreading crown, the main branches of which come off not far from the ground. To compel the stem to elongate into a long pole he has to plant other trees with it (as we have seen, beech, spruce, etc.) ”

“ It is often found blooming beside tall coffee-trees, themselves full of deep green clustering berries, the tree, where grown for ornamental purposes, being permitted to reach full proportions. Here one sees also a profusion of the rich green bamboo in prolific groves by the roadside, or surrounding humble cottages, thus forming a welcome shade. In midsummer, so rapid is the growth of the bamboo that every twenty-four hours adds two feet to its height, or in other words, it grows an inch each hour throughout the day and the night. ”

“ Its fruit is found in perfection on the confines of Nubia.
THE BAMBOO-TREE. Nature, or rather the great Author of nature, has conferred on the inhabitants of hot countries few gifts more valuable than the bamboo-tree, a view of which is given over the leaf. To such a multitude of useful purposes are its light, strong and graceful stems applied, that almost any other production of the vegetable world might more easily be spared than this. These stems spring from a strong-jointed, subterraneous root-stalk, which is the trunk of the tree, the shoots being the branches. ”

“ This is the type tree of the Park formations and a very common and well-known species with a wide distribution. Owing to its great value as a food and its uses by the natives, it is often the sole occupant of extensive areas of cultivation. It grows to large sizes, 50-60 feet high with girths of 10 feet or more. The bole, in the case of trees which are grown in the open, is short, not, as a rule, above 10 or 12 feet, and several large, spreading limbs form a very wide crown which appears dark and dense at a distance, but which, in fact, gives only average shade. ”

“ Though rather large stands occur in certain southern regions, and scattering trees are found in large areas, the total quantity in the country is known to be too small to give this tree an important place as a source of lumber. Neither is there expectation that the future has anything in store for this particular member of the tribe of oaks. The wood rates high in physical properties; is strong as white oak, if not stronger, tough, stiff, hard, and heavy. In contact with the ground it is very durable. The heartwood is rich, dark brown, the sapwood lighter. ”

“ Other timber trees are known here by the names of Pink-wood, Carpodontos lucida, Hard-wood, a species of Olea, Sasafras, Athosperma moschata, Stinkwood, Zieria arborescens, &c. Forest Tea Tree, a species of Leptospermum, is valued for fuel; some crooked portions of its trunk are finely veined, and well adapted for fancy-work. The black substance forming part of the stems of tree ferns, is used for reeding, in inlaying, for which purpose it is superior to Ebony. ”

“ I shall mention but one tree more, as famous and highly set by as any of the rest, if not more, though it bears no fruit, the benefit consisting chiefly in the holiness of it. This tree they call Bogauhah; we, the God Tree. It is very great and spreading; the leaves always shake like an asp. They have a great veneration for these trees, worshipping them upon a tradition that Buddou, a great god among them, when he was upon the earth, did use to sit under this kind of trees. There are many of these trees, which they plant all the land over, and have more care of than of any other. ”

“ I saw some fine large trees in this wood, of a species of Triplaris, and an arboreous Bignonia, destitute of leaves, but covered with flowers not unlike those of the Foxglove, in shape, size, and colour. The underwood here consisted chiefly of different kinds of Mimosa, Acacia, Bauhinia, Cæsalpinia, &c., and an immense number of Lemon trees, loaded with fruit; this tree has here become quite naturalized, and the cattle that pasture in the woods are so fond of the fallen fruit, that when killed, their flesh smells strongly of it. ”

“ Boundless plains are covered with bog and turf; the oakwood, thousands of years old, which is found sometimes at a great depth, fetches a high price for decorative furniture; snuff-boxes and ladies’ ornaments are likewise made of it. The other part of the soil is sandy or wet: the dry lands are meagre and barren; but on the other hand the bog cultivation, which is admirably understood, is very successful. The bog is first levelled, the projecting part being cut into squares of turf, and the soil then burnt and sown with corn. ”

“ Provident settlers, therefore, rarely leave large and lofty trees near their dwellings for fear of accident.
The pine, in the Penetanguishene country, has a strange fancy to start out of the earth in three, five, or more trunks, all joined at the base, and each trunk an enormous tree. I have an idea that this has arisen from the stony, loose soil they grow in, which has caused this strange freak of Nature, by making it difficult for the young plant to rear its head out of the ground. ”

“ Here I observed an ingenious device for obtaining young trees from the old; round a promising branch of a tree a piece of bamboo about a foot in length, which has previously been divided into two parts along its length, is tied, and the hollow between the branch and the interior of the bamboo filled with mould. In a short time suckers leave the branch and descend into the mould, and, when they are sufficiently developed, the branch is cut off and planted, the suckers forming the roots of the young tree. ”