"IT!" repeated Peterkin; "why, there are dozens of banians here!
What do you mean by talking bad grammar? Is your philosophy
deserting you, Jack?"

"There is but one tree here of this kind," returned Jack, "as you
will perceive if you will examine it." And, sure enough, we did
find that what we had supposed was a forest of trees was in reality
only one. Its bark was of a light colour, and had a shining
appearance, the leaves being lance-shaped, small, and of a
beautiful pea-green. But the wonderful thing about it was, that
the branches, which grew out from the stem horizontally, sent down
long shoots or fibres to the ground, which, taking root, had
themselves become trees, and were covered with bark like the tree
itself. Many of these fibres had descended from the branches at
various distances, and thus supported them on natural pillars, some
of which were so large and strong, that it was not easy at first to
distinguish the offspring from the parent stem. The fibres were of
all sizes and in all states of advancement, from the pillars we
have just mentioned to small cords which hung down and were about
to take root, and thin brown threads still far from the ground,
which swayed about with every motion of wind. In short, it seemed
to us that, if there were only space afforded to it, this single
tree would at length cover the whole island.

Shortly after this we came upon another remarkable tree, which, as
its peculiar formation afterwards proved extremely useful to us,
merits description. It was a splendid chestnut, but its proper
name Jack did not know. However, there were quantities of fine
nuts upon it, some of which we put in our pockets. But its stem