48 JUNGLE ISLAND 



sides dozens of other rootlets to hug the tree on 

 which it grows until it is quite surrounded and 

 smothered to death. Sometimes the wild fig 

 stands like a real tree after the first one has 

 rotted away inside it, leaving a hollow down the 

 center. It is helped to stand erect by having 

 its upper branches woven into the vine tangle of 

 the forest roof, but if a heavy windstorm comes 

 along it falls more easily than a real tree. Near 

 my spiked tree I could see several wild figs at 

 different ages. The pictures (Figs. 22, 23) show 

 a young fig just beginning to take possession of a 

 tree, and an older one which has lost its support- 

 ing tree and fallen. 



Another liana that is most pleasing to find on 

 a hot day is the water vine. One day, coming 

 home from a long tramp across the island, our 

 guide fairly jumped forward, as suddenly as if 

 he had seen a snake. With his machete he 

 attacked a large liana, looking like an immense 

 twisted grapevine, and cut from it a piece nearly 

 a yard long. The sloping ends were three inches 

 across. Necto Hfted one end over his mouth 

 and water ran from it so fast that he could not 

 swallow it all. He cut pieces for the rest of us, 

 and we found the water cool and of a very good 

 flavor. 



Higher on the sand-box tree grew many plants 

 that are never found except in such airy places 

 as tree trunks and branches. Many of these are 



