534 NATURAL SCIENCE. sept.. 



manner the octopus-like arms are extended everywhere, and the 

 loranth grows into a great bush. 



It is not, however, to the interest of the loranth that the tree 

 should die, but rather live as long as possible. It therefore avoids 

 the great limbs and larger branches, confining itself to the smaller 

 twigs. Nevertheless, a branch is often killed by the continued 

 depletion, and if the loranth has not succeeded in laying hold of 

 others it soon withers. Sometimes every branch is infested and then 

 the whole tree must succumb, to the utter destruction of its destroyer. 

 As in the case of the strangler, flowers are at first produced without 

 fruit, then the tree gets too weak to bloom, and finally leaf after leaf 

 drops until all are gone, and the branches themselves die and fall off. 

 When the tree is covered with foliage the loranth is hidden, but when 

 it is bare the enemy can be seen in all its luxuriance. Where 

 trees are close together, as in the forest, it rarely happens that one is 

 actually killed in this way, as the loranths attach themselves to 

 several individuals. Nevertheless, in such an intense struggle as 

 that of the forest any element of weakness is a dangerous handicap 

 to the individual, and will ultimately cause its defeat. 



Where there are no deciduous trees, it follows that one with its 

 twigs entirely bare is a very striking object. Everything around is 

 most luxuriant, while the victim of the strangler or parasite stands 

 like the mummy at a feast. This does not last long, however, as bush 

 ropes soon cover it with garlands of flowers, and in a year or two 

 young trees shut out the sight. 



Palms and other endogens escape both clusia and loranth. Some- 

 times a fig will establish itself in the crown, and even encircle the 

 stem, without the slightest injury to its host. The strangler may en- 

 circle and compress it, but the vital part is unaffected, being well in 

 the interior and protected by very hard and tough surroundings. 

 Moreover, the immense fronds or leaves are too hard and dry to be 

 congenial to the loranth. Unfortunately, however, it is not entirely 

 secure, although it folds frond after frond over the tender terminal bud. 

 The borer beetle finds out its weak point, pierces all the wrappings, 

 and deposits its eggs, with the result that the heart is soon devoured 

 by larvae. Then the fronds drop off and nothing remains but a bare 

 stem like the pillar of some ruined temple lost in the forest. 



Accidents cause the death of many a forest tree on the river bank. 

 High floods soften the mud, so that when the trunk leans over and is 

 weighted by a burthen of creepers, it is often borne down and even carried 

 away by the current, if the timber is not too heavy to float. Sometimes, 

 on a creek, the tree will be entangled in the branches of its opposite 

 neighbour, and manage to recover itself by throwing out fresh roots. 

 When the wood is heavier than water and the tree settles down and 

 dies, its trunk remains as an obstruction for a very long time, perhaps 

 centuries. When the creeks are very low, these old trunks or tacoobas 

 are seen lying at the bottom in the utmost confusion. Nothing 



