ILLUSTRATIONS OF A M STRANGLING ' FIG TREE. 165 



final disappearance leaving the fig tree of the adult form 

 shown in plate 44. Meantime the latter, itself, has become 

 the host of numerous orchid, bromeliad and fern epiphytes, 

 and may even bear secondary plants of its own species, 

 some of which themselves may effect a connection with 

 the ground (plate 42). Morphologically, therefore, the 

 main pseudo-trunks of these hemi-epiphytic figs, like the 

 columnar props which some of them form under their 

 branches, are roots and not stems, — a fact which must be 

 taken into account in studying their anatomical structure. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATES. 



The illustrations are from photographs by the author, 

 all made about Rascon, in the State of San Luis Potosi, 

 Mexico. 



Plate 39. — Palmetto with upper part of stem covered with petiole-bases 

 in the axils of which are established a large epiphytic bromeliad, and a 

 rather small fig the roots of which have already closely invested the 

 middle part of the trunk. 



Plate 40. — At the left, a palmetto the petiole bases of which support 

 numerous small epiphytes* In the center, a palmetto with two well 

 established figs. 



Plate 41. — Part of the trunk of the central tree of plate 40, showing the 

 characteristic roots of the fig and the influence of such obstacles as 

 petiole bases of the palmetto on the direction of their growth. 



Plate 42. — An old but openly branched fig tree with the axile palmetto 

 still vigorous. The fig itself bears clusters of ferns, Tillandsia, etc.. A 

 small independent trunk is shown at the right. 



Plate 43. — At the left, a palmetto bearing a well started young fig. At 

 the right, an old fig tree the dense branches of which closely surround 

 the leaf cluster of the central palm. 



Plate 44. — A very large mature fig tree from the center of which the 

 original palmetto host* has entirely disappeared. 



Plate 45. — Fruiting spray of the strangling fig of Rascon (F. ligas- 

 trinci?), natural size. 



