Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Encyclopaedia Britannica, or a Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Miscellaneous Literature, Vol. 18: Enlarged and Improved
The red mangle er mangrove grows on the sea shore, and at the mouth of large rivers but does not advance, like the former, into the water. It genera rises to the height of 20 or 80 feet, with crook knotty branches, which proceed from all parts of the trunk. The bark is slender, of a brown colour, and, when you ng, is smooth, and adheres very closely to the wood; but when old, appears quite cracked, and is easily detached from it. Under this bark is a skin as thick as parchment, red, and adhering closely to the wood, from which it cannot be detached till the tnee is felled and dry. The wood is hard, couret, heavy, of a deep red, with a very fine grain. He pith or heart of the wood being cut into small pieces, and boiled in water, imparts a very beautiful red to the li quid, which communicates the same colour to wool and linen. The great weight and hardness of the wood prevent it from being generally used. From the fruit of this tree, which, when ripe, is of a violet colour, and resembles some grapes in taste, is prepared an agreeable liquor, much esteemed by the inhabitants of the Carib bee islands.
White mugle, so termed from the colour of its wood, grows, like the two former, upon the banks of rivers, but is seldom found near the sea. The bark is gray; the wood, as we have said, white, and when green supple; but dries as soon as cut down, and becomes very light and brittle. This species is general] y called rope-mangrove, from the use to which the bark is ap plied by the inhabitants of the West Indies. This bark, which, on account of the great abundance of sap, is easiiy detached when green from the wood, is beaten or bruised betwixt two stones, until the hard and wood y part is totally separated from that which is soft and ten der. This last, which is the true cortical substance, is twisted into ropes of all sizes, which are exceedingly strong, and not apt to rot in the water.
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