194 HUTCHINSON'S POPULAR BOTANY 



Mr. James Rodway has much to say of the Clusias and their deadly 

 work. " Woe betide the forest giant when he falls into the clutches of the 

 Clusia or fig," he writes. " Its seed being provided with a pulp, which is 

 very pleasant to the taste of a great number of birds, is carried from tree 

 to tree and deposited on the branches. Here it germinates, the leafy stem 

 rising upward and the roots flowing, as it were, down the trunk until they 

 reach the soil. At first these aerial roots are soft and . delicate, with 

 apparently no more power for evil than so many small streams of pitch, 



[E. Step. 

 FIG. 246. SNOWDROP-TREE (Halesia tetraptera). 



A. beautiful North American shrub, growing to a height of fifteen or twenty feet, and representing the order Styracaceae. 

 Its drooping bells are produced in spring before the leaves are fully expanded; They have not so close a resem- 

 blance to the Snowdrop as the name suggests. 



which they resemble in their slowly flowing motion downwards. Here and 

 there they branch, especially if an obstruction is met with, when the stream 

 either changes its course or divides to right and left. Meanwhile, leafy 

 branches have been developed, which push themselves through the canopy 

 above and get into the light, where their growth is enormously accelerated. 

 As this takes place the roots have generally reached the ground and begun 

 to draw sustenance from below to strengthen the whole plant. Then comes 

 a wonderful development. The hitherto soft aerial roots begin to harden 

 and spread wider and wider, throwing out side branches which flow into and 



