

ILLUSTRATIONS OF A " STRANGLING " FIG TREE, 163 



term hemi-epiphyte, later applied to these figs and plants 

 of similar habit by Schimper* still more truly indicates 

 their relation to the host, as they " germinate and pass 

 through their earliest development on trees but subse- 

 quently become connected with the ground by their roots" 

 thus passing from the epiphytic to the ordinary mode of 

 nutrition. 



In the genus under consideration Schimperf finds the 

 largest representatives of his hemi-epiphytes, among the 

 banyans and other figs of the tropics of both hemispheres* 

 Striking pictures of some of these plants have been pub- 

 lished by various writers. J Perhaps the most interesting 

 individual case is that of the famous banyan (F. Indica) of 

 the Calcutta botanical garden, which in its mature form has 

 served as the subject of many photographs and engravings. 

 According to Hooker, § in 1782 its site was occupied by a 

 wild date-palm out of the crown of which the banyan 

 sprouted; but the palm has long since disappeared, while 

 the fig of late years i3 said to have lost a number of its 

 horizontal branches so that in places it is broken into a ver- 



4 



* Schimper, Pflanzen-Geographie. 340, 343; English translation. 



319, 320. 



f Schimper, Pflanzen-Geographie. 344; English translation. 321. — One 

 of the younger plants of this type is shown in/. 158; a seedling, in 

 /• 1 60 ; and a good illustration of one of the species overgrowing a Venez- 

 uelan Copernicia, in/. 200. 



\ Schimper, Epiphytische Vegetation Amerikas. pi. I (an unnamed 

 Sikkim-Himalayan species). — Kerner, Pflanzen-Leben. 1 ; English 

 translation. 1:159, 704./. 168-9 (F. Benjamina " Incrusting " some 

 myrtaceous tree on one of the Nicobar islands,/. 169; and an unnamed 

 species in the earlier stages of its root development, /. 1 68. The plants 

 are called u tree-constrictors ' p ) . — Wettstein, Vegetationsbilder aus 

 Siidbrasilien. pi. 31 . — A quotation from Tennent's Ceylon, in The Garden. 

 25 : 446, gives an interesting general account of the phenomenon in that 

 island. — Gardeners' Chronicle. III. 18:327./. 61 (a species doubtfully 

 referred to F. Isiala, on the mango). 



§ Hooker, Himalayan Journals. 2 : 254. — See also Bailey's Cyclop. 

 Amer. Hort. 2:582. 



