No External Injury, Not Even A Fire,
Can Destroy This Tree From Without; Nor Can Any Injury Be Done From
Within,
as it is quite common to find it hollow; and I have seen one
in which twenty or thirty
Men could lie down and sleep as in a hut.
Nor does cutting down exterminate it, for I saw instances in Angola
in which it continued to grow in length after it was lying on the ground.
Those trees called exogenous grow by means of successive layers
on the outside. The inside may be dead, or even removed altogether,
without affecting the life of the tree. This is the case
with most of the trees of our climate. The other class is called endogenous,
and increases by layers applied to the inside; and when the hollow there
is full, the growth is stopped - the tree must die. Any injury
is felt most severely by the first class on the bark; by the second
on the inside; while the inside of the exogenous may be removed,
and the outside of the endogenous may be cut, without stopping the growth
in the least. The mowana possesses the powers of both. The reason is that
each of the laminae possesses its own independent vitality;
in fact, the baobab is rather a gigantic bulb run up to seed than a tree.
Each of eighty-four concentric rings had, in the case mentioned,
grown an inch after the tree had been blown over. The roots,
which may often be observed extending along the surface of the ground
forty or fifty yards from the trunk, also retain their vitality
after the tree is laid low; and the Portuguese now know that the best way
to treat them is to let them alone, for they occupy much more room
when cut down than when growing.
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