DEATH IN THE FOREST. 533 



or that of the epiphytes upon them. Then the bark begins to peel 

 off and fall in great flakes which carry with them masses of orchids 

 and bromelias. Beetles deposit their larvae in the now rotting trunk, 

 and wood-peckers make holes to get at them. Water trickles down 

 into the hollows and makes them larger and larger until some day parrots 

 build their nests there. Meanwhile, those destructive little creatures 

 the wood-ants, or termites, are mining everywhere until the wood is 

 permeated with tunnels only separated from each other by paper- 

 like partitions. It takes many years before a large trunk is crumbled 

 down under the influence of heavy rains and wood-ants, and during 

 this time it runs the risk of falling, which means death to the 

 strangler, since, deprived of its support, it cannot rise again. 



On the sand-reefs which extend in front of the forests of Guiana, 

 the struggle for life is less intense, as few trees can get over the 

 difficulties attendant on a stretch of white sand heated by the burning 

 sun. Seeds of trees that have been accustomed for generations to 

 germinate in the damp gloom cannot endure this furnace-like heat. 

 Clusias, on the contrary, are well fitted for such conditions, and 

 grow to perfection on the reefs. Accustomed to throw their aerial 

 roots downward, this faculty becomes very useful, as it enables 

 them to reach the cool depths where moisture accumulates and is 

 retained, even in the driest season. Among the half-starved looking 

 bushes which grow in clumps here and there, the various species of 

 the clusia family are conspicuous for their healthy appearance. Here, 

 as elsewhere, they allow 1:0 epiphytes or parasites to rest on their 

 smooth limbs. 



Beside the stranglers there are those veritable blood-suckers, the 

 many species of Loranthns and PJwvodcndron. These are allied to the 

 English mistletoe, and like it parasitic. But the mistletoe works in 

 a very quiet way as compared with its tropical cousins. Here in the 

 cultivated districts of British Guiana thousands of fruit trees are 

 infested with loranths, and many may be seen in the various stages 

 from weakness to death. 



Like those of the wild figs, the seeds of the parasites are distri- 

 buted by birds. • In wet weather they may be seen germinating on 

 ever}' fence — little discs with two mistletoe-like seed-leaves. The 

 pulp round the seed is glutinous and keeps it from falling until the 

 sucking disc, which answers to the root, takes a firm hold. Those 

 that germinate elsewhere than on the living tree soon wither, but the 

 others take firm hold and soon extend their aerial roots up and down 

 the branch or twig. These are provided with suckers at intervals of 

 about an inch, by means of which the juices of the tree or shrub are 

 extracted until the loranth begins to rapidly spread in all directions. 

 Its long whip-like branches wave in every breeze and are often 

 carried near other trees or other boughs of that on which it is located, 

 seizing them by its aerial roots which coil spirally round them for a 

 foot or more, until they are tapped by a dozen suckers. In this 



