PLANTS THAT ROB AND MURDER 63 



Devil's-thread, whose luxurious and prolific life is 

 practically unmolested, when once it gets a start. 



In great tropical forests there is a spirit of ter- 

 rible selfishness and combat. Every individual tree 

 and plant seems to be struggling to surpass those 

 about it, heeding no law of social responsibility, but 

 twining itself about the nearest supporting neigh- 

 bour, reaching, stretching, clawing, caring not 

 what destruction it causes, aiming always upward 

 to the light and air above. The parasites cling 

 everywhere to others, which cannot throw them off . 

 Clearly here in the wilds, as in tribes of uncivilised 

 humans, there is but one law of life, that of the 

 survival of the fittest! 



The Murderer Liana is a parasite of the most 

 unscrupulous kind, whose weak stem is unable to 

 support its avaricious and ponderous head, and who 

 therefore clings to its upright neighbours for sup- 

 port. It springs up beside a stalwart tree, and as 

 its stem grows, it spreads out like a soft poultice 

 upon the trunk of the tree. Then it climbs by 

 sending out clinging arms, wrapping them around 

 the body of its victim, and joining them on the 

 other side. Up and up climbs the strangler, al- 

 ways sending out new arms around the stricken 

 tree, and the arms always growing thicker and 

 heavier to support the increasing weight; until at 



