THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST 377 



air, room, and light. It looks very much like the 

 result of planning and reasoning, of a deliberate 

 selfishness of the worst sort. The helpless tree 

 which is being crushed and strangled in the em- 

 brace of the fig, the long, lithe roots thrusting 

 themselves into every crevice, wrapping tighter 

 and tighter about their victim, remind one of 

 Laocoon and the serpents. The fig is not content 

 with using the host to elevate it into the region of 

 light and give it a start in life, but it utterly de- 

 stroys its benefactor in order that it may use the 

 exact space it occupied. 



When they have plenty of room our Ficus or 

 wild figs often reach gigantic proportions. They 

 frequently come up in the pineland, especially 

 about dwellings or cultivated land, and grow 

 rapidly, but they are so different in appearance 

 from the hammock specimens that no one would 

 suspect that they were the same species. In the 

 latter locations the tiny roots of Ficus aurea 

 usually grow singly, while in the open those of both 

 trees are in fascicles which often become tangled 

 and braided by the action of the wind. At last 

 they become consolidated into great, knotted 

 ropes. The lighter colored growing points are 



