236 SAGACITY AND MORALITY OF PLANTS. 



mighty trees, and are enjoying, I presume, every 

 different stage of the strangling art, from the baby 

 Matapolo, who, like the one which you saw in the 

 Botanic Garden, has let down his first air-root along 

 his victim's stem, to the old sinner whose dark crown 

 of leaves is supported eighty feet in air, on innumer- 

 able branching columns of every size, cross-clasped 

 to each other by transverse bars. The giant-tree on 

 which his seed first fell has rotted away utterly, and 

 he stands in its place, prospering in his wickedness, 

 like certain folk whom David knew too well !" 



Some of these parasites assume the habit only when 

 convenient, and they appear to be able to throw it off 

 as may be required. The genus Clitsia, abundant in 

 the forests of tropical America, is remarkable for 

 this semi-barbaric mode of life. A few species grow 

 parasitically as long as they can, and, when sufficient 

 supplies for their full needs are not forthcoming — 

 when they require more nourishment than the heavily- 

 taxed tree they have laid under tribute can afford 

 them — they will send out long shoots to the ground, 

 which take root there, and grow into an actual stem. 

 In other words, like similar units who hang on 

 human society, they only work when they are obliged 

 to do so. They prefer that others should work for 

 them, and would remain permanent parasites if it 

 were possible. 



From all of these statements it is evident that the 

 climbing habit, gradually developed by weak-stemmed, 



