So with its noble congener here, the many-trunked Banyan (_Ficus Indica_). Although not an old tree, its canopy of broad downy leaves is already supported by so many secondary trunks, that it is not easy to say which of the larger stems is the mother trunk, and which the hopeful daughters. Every one of these stems, some just protruding from the horizontal limbs, others hanging midway between the leafy roof and the earth, some just inserting their slender spongy tips into the soil, others thick and pillar-like--is an evidence of progressive development, and therefore of lapsed time; only for the qualifying fact, that the development in this case is _prochronic_. Here is the great _Euphorbia grandidens_ of Africa. Its stout trunk is marked with a number of holes, some four or five inches apart, arranged in perpendicular rows. In some cases they are rather depressions or pittings than holes, and look like what would result from borings made with an auger in pitch in warm weather, the margins of which had nearly closed, subsequently. What is the explanation of these marks? They are all records of time. From each of these spots once grew one of those angular prickly branches, that look like our commonest sorts of _Cactus_, and which are now confined to the summit of the trunk, arching out from it, somewhat like the branches of a candlestick. It is the habit of this plant, when the stem has acquired a certain thickness, that the branches should, after a time, decay and drop off at the point of their union with the trunk, or rather a little below the surface, so as to leave the shallow holes or pits which we see. After their decadence, the growing bark gradually swells around the scars, and has a tendency to obliterate them. This may account for the non-appearance of them on the lower parts of the stem. Here, then, are demonstrations of several successive stages of development. First, the stem must have been in existence before any lateral branches could have sprung from it. Secondly, the branch shot out. Thirdly, it put forth its spines and leaves. Fourthly, it died and sloughed away. Fifthly, the growing bark encroached on, and finally obliterated the cicatrice. In this individual, all these stages are illusory, or rather they are prochronic. See this noble Tulip-tree (_Liriodendron tulipiferum_), a giant of this primeval forest; its towering trunk is crowned with a head of large massy foliage, of a rich deep verdure, among which shine numbers of great golden tulip-like blossoms, as fragrant as beautiful.