, it is now very widely diffused over the island. It is remarkable
for the pink leathery covering which envelopes the leaves before
expansion, and for the delicate tracing of the nerves which run in
equi-distant rows at right angles from the mid-rib. But its most
striking feature is the exposure of its roots, masses of which appear
above ground, extending on all sides from the base, and writhing over
the surface in undulations--

"Like snakes in wild festoon,
In ramous wrestlings interlaced,
A forest Laocoon."[1]

[Footnote 1: HOOD's poem of _The Elm Tree._]

So strong, in fact, is the resemblance, that the villagers give it the
name of the "Snake-tree." One, which grows close to Cotta, at the Church
Missionary establishment within a few miles of Colombo, affords a
remarkable illustration of this peculiarity.

[Illustration: THE SNAKE-TREE.]

There is an avenue of these trees leading to the Gardens of Peradenia,
the roots of which meet from either side of the road, and have so
covered the surface by their agglutinated reticulations as to form a
wooden framework, the interstices of which retain the materials that
form the roadway.[1]

[Footnote 1: Mr. Ferguson of the Surveyor-General's Department, assures
me that he once measured the root of a small wild fig-tree, growing in a
patena at Hewahette, and found it upwards of 140 feet in length, whilst
the tree itself was not 30 feet high.]

The Kumbuk of the Singhalese (called by the Tamils Maratha-maram)[1] is
one of the noblest and most widely distributed trees in the island; it
delights in the banks of rivers and moist borders of tanks and canals;
it overshadows the stream of the Mahawelli-ganga, almost from Kandy to
the sea; and it stretches its great arms above the still water of the
lakes on the eastern side of the island.

[Footnote 1: Pentaptera tomentosa _(Rox.)_.]

One venerable patriarch of this species, which grows at Mutwal, within
three miles of Colombo, towers to so great a height above the
surrounding forests of coconut palms, that it forms a landmark for the
native boatmen, and is discernible from Negombo, more than twenty miles
distant. The circumference of its stem, as measured by Mr. W. Ferguson,
in 1850, was forty-five feet close to the earth, and seven yards at
twelve feet above the ground.

The timber, which is durable, is applied to the carving of idols for the
temples, besides being extensively used for less dignified purposes; but