MORACE.E 267 



acids in the hops tend to increase the acidity of the wort, and 

 the ash adds to its mineral composition. 



FICUS (Fig) 



Habit, Roots, Stems. — Members of this genus are trees, 

 shrubs or woody cHmbers (Hanas) . A number of species are 

 parasitic on other trees. A parasite is an organism which 

 secures its food material from another living organism. A 

 complete parasite has no power of making its own food as do 

 those plants which possess chlorophyll. The Golden Fig 

 {Ficus aurea) begins life as an epiphyte ; the seed germinates 

 in the crevices of other trees; the aerial roots that are first 

 produced take root when they strike the soil, and hence be- 

 come trunk-like. Aerial roots may be sent down from 

 branches, take root and also form trunks. The banyan tree 

 (Ficus henghalensis) also starts its Hfe on the bough of a tree, 

 receiving all its nutriment from substances available on the 

 bark. Hence in its early life the banyan is an epiphyte. 

 When once rooted in the soil, the plant becomes independent. 

 In the East Indies, the banyan is "universally known as an 

 immense Kving columned hall, consisting of a flat expanded 

 canopy of leaves and numerous stem-like prop roots growing 

 down from the boughs" (Schimper's Plant Geography). 



Leaves. — The leaves are alternate, sometimes opposite, 

 thick, leathery and deciduous or persistent. In the 

 Buddhists' sacred Peepul tree {Ficus religiosa), a plant of 

 tropical rain forests, the leaves have a long "dripping point," 

 by means of which rain water is soon drained off. The 

 stipules are interpetiolar and early deciduous. 



Inflorescence. — The flowers occur within an enlarged, 

 fleshy, hollow receptacle (Fig. 106) which is commonly borne 

 in the axils of leaves. Staminate and pistillate flowers may 

 be borne in the same receptacle or in different receptacles. 



