684 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



trunks, and multitudes of epiphytes flourish in their airy crowns, 

 among which we are surprised to see the Clusias, themselves trees, 

 enthroned high upon the topmost limbs. From the height of more 

 than a hundred feet these parasites, called in the country " Scotch at- 

 torneys," and " cursed fig-trees," send their rope-like, tufted air-roots 

 clear to the ground, to draw up water and food to their lofty abode, 

 while they establish their mechanical security on the stem of the mother- 

 tree by a close network of holding-roots. Sometimes the Bursera 

 dies in the embrace of the strangler, and its trunk molders away with- 

 out crumbling up, within its tight envelope, and finally falls, if it is not 

 held up by the vines, bringing its destroyer down with it. 



At Laudat, where we are to spend the night, two thousand feet 

 above the sea, we find a better opportunity than we have ever before 

 enjoyed to become acquainted with the structure and habits of the epi- 

 phytic phanerogams. At all other places on the island these plants 

 live in the tree-tops, and we have to content ourselves with looking at 

 them through the glass, or to rely for more careful examination upon 

 such specimens as we can bring down with the gun. Here, where the 

 forest has been cleared away for several acres, these plants have come 

 down with the trees, and, finding enough light near the ground, live 

 upon the bushes. They have been quite fully described by A. W. F. 

 Schimper, in the *'Botanisches Centralblatt," and we check our own 

 observations by his account. Most of the epiphytes of Landat belong 

 to the families of the orchids, aroids, bromelias, and ferns, while many 

 other families are represented by individual forms. 



The peculiar conditions under which these plants live require pe- 

 culiar adaptations. One of their most general characteristics, and fre- 

 quently a very prominent one, is the succulent or leathery constituency 

 of their leaves, which, operating to impede transpiration, well adapts 

 them to the dry conditions of their dwelling-place. Some of them are 

 protected by a clothing of hairs. Many epiphytes are characterized by 

 superficial extensions of their organs at relatively small heights above 

 their substratum ; quite usual are the arrangement in rosettes of the 

 leaves at the base of the stem, thickenings of the stem into knots, and a 

 creeping or climbing habit — all peculiarities denoting adaptation to the 

 absorption of water and food, and to the gaining of a secure footing 

 on the substratum. In the way of special adaptations, we may, with 

 Schimper, distinguish among the epiphytes four groups, according to 

 the manner in which they take up their food. 



Those of one group simply derive their nourishment from the bark 

 to which they are attached, and are in this respect analogous to the 

 ground-plants. Those of the second group send down roots to the 

 ground, besides those by which they adhere to the tree, and thus put 

 themselves as to nourishment in almost precisely the condition of 

 ground-plants. Of these are the Clusia, which we have described, and 

 two plants which were conspicuous at Laudat, by their handsome flow- 



