THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST 375 



of another tree the indigestible seeds may be 

 passed out and lodged in some cavity or crevice 

 of the bark. Ordinary seeds would never ger- 

 minate in such situations and if they did the young 

 plants would soon die because of lack of nourish- 

 ment. Those of the Ficus sprout and begin to 

 grow on the tree where they are lodged, and the 

 radicle develops into a tiny root which creeps out 

 over the surface of the trunk or limb to which it 

 is attached; the plumule becomes a stem bearing 

 the ordinary Ficus leaves, and in a short time it 

 is a strong, healthy plant. It is not a parasite for 

 it does not draw its sap from its host ; it is at first 

 an epiphyte and it seems to cling with a sort of 

 loving dependence to its supporter. Often the 

 foliage of the two looks so much alike that the 

 uninitiated would never suspect that two different 

 trees were growing together, and I have sometimes 

 fancied that this was a sort of cuckoo trick by 

 which this interloper sought to deceive its host 

 and pass itself off for a part of it. 



One root follows after another and when they 

 reach the ground they "make fast," as the sailors 

 say, and soon become "taut as a bowline." Then 

 lateral roots spring out and cross the perpendicular 



