GENERAL INTRODUCTION 19 



the ground until it falls across a tree. Then it fixes its roots 

 into the crevices of the bark, and pulls itself up. It often 

 ends in smothering its living ladder with immense masses 

 •of sword-like foliage, whose weight must be tremendous. 

 Similarly, several of the rata vines ascend by ivy-like rootlets. 

 The large rata-tree, however, strangles its support, putting out 

 transverse finger-like roots that cannot fail to impress the 

 ordinary observer with the apparent purposefulness of their 

 grasp. The lawyer, on the other hand, cat-like, fixes its 

 recurved claws into the bark of a tree, and thus drags itself 

 up. The Clematis and Passijiora climb by tendrils. The 

 Supplejack, Muhlenheckias, Convolvuli, Parsonsias, Ipomea, 

 and Senecio sciadophilus twine. None of these are strong 

 enough to support themselves, though some of them — 

 particularly the lawyers and Muhlenheckias — may occasionally 

 be found in the open, where they form mounded heaps, often 

 many feet in diameter, and several feet in height. 



Wanderers through the bush are often puzzled by observing 

 •cable-like stems that fall pendent from the roof of the forest to 

 its floor, without support. It seems impossible that these 

 climbers, with their flexible stems, could have got into such 

 a position without some external help. Often it will be found 

 that these rope-like lianes belong to a species of Bubus, (the 

 bush-lawyer) . They have originally been endowed with hooks 

 by w^hich they have climbed up a tree. Their weight and 

 upward growth have finally disengaged them from the trunk 

 by which they have ascended, and in the course of years 

 they may be removed by various processes to a considerable 

 -distance from it. If the liane is not a Bubus, then its position 

 -can only be explained by supposing that the tree up which 

 it climbed has died, probably in an unavailing effort to push up 

 to the light. Many young trees throughout the forest must 

 perish in this way. 



The structure of the stem in lianes is of considerable 

 interest, but for a description of this some text book of botany 

 must be consulted. 



