'The Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society. From December 1854 to March 1856. (New Issue.) Edited by the Secretary. Volume XII.' [‎56] (73/258)

Ivi
PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY.
and tenderness of their foliage, suffered most : their leaves were all split to
pieces from the mid-rib outwards, as 1 if combed: within a week they had
thrown out new leaves from the centre stem to betwixt two and three feet, of
the most delicate tint and texture, the injured portions shrivelling up and
dropping off. Within a fortnight of the occurrence of the gale, the whole of
our gardens, plantations, groves, and woods burst forth into fresh foliage, as on
the appearance of spring—the withered leaves were all got rid of, and new
ones substituted in their room ; but here the efforts of nature unnaturally
called forth, stopped short,—neither shoots nor twigs made their appearance,
and the branches once clothed again, everything resumed its general cold
weather appearance.
Watching with the utmost care the effect this unusual state of things might
have on the ordinary phenomena of the season, I found that the vegetation of
April and May was unusually scanty—spring had been anticipated, and when
it arrived, was devoid of nearly all its brilliancy : vegetation in general was
feeble ; the mango trees were nearly without fruit; and many of our most
brilliant flowering trees and shrubst failed to show any flowers at all; or, in
place of flowering in April and May, deferred this till July or August, when the
rains were nearly over.
Passing from generalities to particulars, we may enumerate a few of the
more noble of our trees which suffered most.
The Banyan Merchant of Indian extraction. (Ficus Indica), when well rooted, and growing near rock,
escaped almost scatheless—when found on loose or sandy soil, as along the
Marine Lines, they were nearly all blown down ; no attempt was in
general made to set them up again, and the same remarks hold good of the
Peepul (Ficus Religiosa), which, like the Banyan Merchant of Indian extraction. , spreads its roots along the
surface, and rarely seeks for nourishment to any great depth, unless in
rocky fissures, where there is a want of soil.
The Palm .—Though we have six or seven varieties of palm on the island,
only four require to be noticed as giving any character to our woods—the Pal
myra (Borassus flabelliformis,) the Cocoanut (Palma nucifera,) the Date (Phoe
nix daclytifera), and the Betelnut (Palma gracialis). The palmyra, which is
much the tallest of the four, and looks as if incapable of withstanding the
tempest, suffered the least. The naked portion of the stem of this tree is from
forty to seventy feet in height before the leaves are attained ; it is from one and
three quarters to two feet in diameter, and varies but little throughout its
length, being considerably thicker six or eight feet up than near the surface of
the ground. It is nearly straight, and so stiff that it scarcely yields to the
strongest breeze. The leafstalks are from three to four feet in length, and this
is probably nearly the dimensions of the leaf itself. The top of the tree, there
fore, is an almost spherical clump of leaves, from twelve to sixteen feet in diame
ter, presenting to the wind a sectional area of about ninety square feet; or say,
that by the bending of the leaves when the hurricane was blowing, and the
spaces betwixt them, of fifty square feet—on which the force of the wind was
at one time about tliirty pounds to the square foot, or 1,500 on the tree. That
this enormous force at the end of a lever of say fifty feet in length, acting on a
purely fibrous root, with scarcely any lateral spread, so rarely effected the
overthrow of the tree, shows how firmly it was rooted in the fissures of the
rock. The cocoanut is a less tall and much more yielding tree than the
palmyra.