SCIENTIFIC PAPERS. 



THE FLORIDA STRANGLING FIGS. 



BY ERNST A. BESSEY. 



The genus Ficus, in particular the section Urostigma, con- 



tains many species that have, in their earher stages^ a ten- 

 dency to assume the epiphytic habit* This is the case, accord- 

 ing to Engler,* with F. elastica Roxb., F. bengalensis L., less 

 often with F. infectoria Roxb. and still more rarely with F. 



religiosa L. In Mexico, as described by Trelease,t a species 

 doubtfully referred to F. ligustrina K. & B., but, as Dr. 

 Trelease informs me, held by Warburg to be rather F. radula 

 or a closely allied undescribed species, is abundant as an 

 epiphyte upon Sabal mexicaTia^ the plants becoming eventually 

 self-supporting on their trunk-like roots. 

 There arc two native species of figs in Florida: F. aurea 



Nutt. and F. populnea Willd. Under circumstances both may 

 exhibit the epiphytic habit when young, although the latter 

 species shows' the characteristic only rarely. So far the 

 writer has observed it as an epiphyte only once, upon Quercus 

 virginiana Mill. He has observed F. aurea upon the following 

 trees, the first two being the most common hosts: Quercus 

 virginiana Mill, (plate 1), Sabal palmetto (Walt.) R. & S. 

 (plate 2), Metopium meiopium (L.) Small (plate 4, fig, 1), 

 Bursera simaruba (L.) Sarg., Coccolobis laurifolia Jacq., 

 Gymnanthes lucida Sw. (plate 5, fig. 1), Dipholis salicifoUa (L.) 

 A. D. C, and even on large trees of its own species (plate 4, 



* 



♦ 



Engler & Prantl. Die naturlichen Pflanzenfamilien. III. 1 : 89-92. 

 (1888). 



t Trelease, Wm. Ulustrations of a '^Strangling" Fig Tree. Sixteenth 



Annual Report of the Missouri Botanical Garden. 161-165. Pis. 34-45, 



(1905), 



(25) 



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