The Wood Is So Spongy And Soft That An Axe Can Be Struck In So Far
With A Good Blow That There Is Great Difficulty In Pulling It Out Again.
In The Dead Mowana Mentioned The Concentric Rings Were Well Seen.
The average
for a foot at three different places was eighty-one and a half of these rings.
Each
Of the laminae can be seen to be composed of two, three, or four
layers of ligneous tubes; but supposing each ring the growth of one year,
and the semidiameter of a mowana of one hundred feet in circumference
about seventeen feet, if the central point were in the centre of the tree,
then its age would lack some centuries of being as old
as the Christian era (1400). Though it possesses amazing vitality,
it is difficult to believe that this great baby-looking bulb or tree
is as old as the Pyramids.
The mopane-tree (`bauhinia') is remarkable for the little shade
its leaves afford. They fold together and stand nearly perpendicular
during the heat of the day, so that only the shadow of their edges
comes to the ground. On these leaves the small larvae of a winged insect
appear covered over with a sweet, gummy substance. The people collect this
in great quantities, and use it as food;* and the lopane -
large caterpillars three inches long, which feed on the leaves,
and are seen strung together - share the same fate.
-
* I am favored with Mr. Westwood's remarks on this insect as follows:
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