Avicennia

Avicennia, or WHITE MANGROVE, a genus of Verbenaceæ (q.v.), consists of trees or large shrubs resembling mangroves (see MANGROVE), and like them, growing in tidal estuaries and salt-marshes. Their creeping roots, often standing six feet above the mud in crowded pyramidal masses, and the naked asparagus-like suckers which they throw up, have a singular appearance. The bark of A. tomentosa, the White Mangrove of Brazil, is much used for tanning. A green resinous substance exuding from A. resinifera is eaten by the New Zealanders.—The genus is named in memory of the Arabian physician Avicenna.