162 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 



culata of the S 



that all 



may perhaps be referrible as forms under the Central 

 American F. sapida Miquel ; but a few leaves which I owe 

 to Mr. Pringle, and his note that they are from a small 

 tree found on limestone ledges, make this assumption im- 

 probable. 



From descriptions and the illustration of F. sapida 

 given by Seeinann,* showing decidedly narrow acute-based 

 leaves, I should hesitate to connect the Rascon fig closely 



though 



'© 



Uro 



have not been sufficiently noted by accurate field observers 

 to warrant one in drawing; too rigid conclusions from single 



n **e 



herbarium sheets or figures. Its affinities are evidently 



with the group of species centering about F. populnea, of 



which the west-coast F. fasciculata and F. padifolia and 



the east-coast F. liguatrina are representatives. For the 



present I should place it under the last-named species, 



which, under the name Urostigma Schiedeanum, has been 



noted by Miquel t from somewhat further down the eastern 

 coast of Mexico. 



Because of their customary final effect on the trees with 

 which they are intimately associated, these strangling figs 



are often spoken of as parasites, a designation which has 

 crept into good and even recent books.J The expressions 

 epiphytic and ephiphytal employed respectively by Schim- 

 per§ and Sargentlf are more accurate, since the trees usually 

 if not always lack ahaustorial or even graft-like connection 

 with the host, though their own roots intergraft; and the 



* Seemann, Bot. Herald, pi, 35. 

 t Miquel, Hooker's Journ. of Bot. 6 : 539. 



X Nuttall, Sylva. 2 : 4. — S[argent], Garden & Forest. 1 : 128; Silva. 

 7 :95. — Small, Flora S. E. U. S. 3G2.— All referring to F. aurea. 



§ Schimper, Epiphytische Vegetation Amerikas. CO. (Bot. Mittheil. 

 aus den Tropen. 2). 



If Sargent, Silva of N. A. 7 : 97. 



