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MANGROVE

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 572 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MANGROVE . The remarkable " mangrove forests " which fringe tidal estuaries, overrun See also:

salt marshes, and See also:line muddy coasts in the tropics of both Old and New Worlds, are composed of trees and shrubs belonging mainly to the Rhizophoraceae, but including, especially in the eastern mangrove formations of Further See also:India and the See also:Malay See also:Archipelago, members of other orders of See also:Dicotyledons, such as Lythraceae (Sonneratia), Verbenaceae (Avicennia), and the See also:acaulescent Nipa-See also:palm. Their trunks and branches constantly emit See also:adventitious roots, which, descending in arched See also:fashion, strike at some distance from the See also:parent See also:stem, and send up new trunks, the See also:forest thus spreading like a See also:banyan See also:grove. An See also:advantage in dispersal, very characteristic of the See also:order, is afforded by the seeds, which have a striking peculiarity of germination. While the See also:fruit is still attached to the parent See also:branch the See also:long radicle emerges from the See also:seed and descends rapidly towards the mud, where it may even establish itself before falling off. Owing to its clubbed shape, this is always in the right position; the plumule then makes its See also:appearance. An interesting feature of the mangrove is the See also:air-roots, erect or kneed branches of the roots, which project above the mud, and are provided with See also:minute openings (stomata or lenticels), into which the air passes and is then carried by means of passages in the soft spongy See also:tissue to the roots which spread beneath the mud. The See also:wood of some See also:species is hard and durable, and the astringent bark is used in tanning. The fruit of the See also:common mangrove, Rhizophora See also:Mangle, is sweet and wholesome, and yields a See also:light See also:wine.

End of Article: MANGROVE

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