CHAPTER XIV 



nut, hickory and beech are examples. The birch, whose bark is 

 generally known, is very rare in California, and we have to do with- 

 out the elms, that are such a feature of Eastern and European land- 

 scapes. Our alders are specially fine, being trees rather than shrubs. 



The fig, or Ficus, family is a notable one in the tropics. Many 

 species have remarkable roots. The India rubber, Ficus elastica, 

 sometimes attains sufficient size in our climate to show its buttress- 

 like roots. Other species of Ficus have climbing, lattice-like roots, 

 which the natives sometimes convert into living bridges. Still 

 others send down from their branches many aerial roots which fasten 

 themselves in the soil and become sturdy columns, resembling 

 trunks and serving the same purpose. The banyan trees of India 

 are of this sort, and are like massive roofs supported by hundreds of 

 columns. The sacred tree of the Hindoos is Ficus religiosa; one 

 tree is said to have sheltered an army of five thousand men, and in 

 Ceylon there is a tree of this species, beneath which a village of one 

 hundred huts is built. Some species of Ficus have juice that is poi- 

 sonous as well as gummy or milky; the upas tree of Java, the subject 

 of many fabulous stories, does furnish a deadly poison which the 

 natives use on arrow heads. 



The hop, hemp and mulberry plants are all akin to the fig. The 

 bitter principle of the hop is developed in the pistillate flower clus- 

 ters. The hemp, besides furnishing fibre for cordage, also yields 

 various narcotics, hashish and the like. The leaves of several spe- 

 cies of mulberry are food for silkworms. The berries are the flower 

 clusters, perianths, stems and all having grown juicy. The bread- 

 fruit tree of the tropics is nearly related to the mulberry; its aggre- 

 gate fruits are baked just before maturity. The nettle family is a 

 large one, and is widely distributed; a few members, the ramie for 

 instance, are valuable fibre plants. The tree nettle is from fifty to 

 one hundred and fifty feet high. There is a curious Australian tree 

 family, Casuarinacese, belonging to this group; one species is cultivated 

 to some extent in California; it is leafless, but has slender, drooping, 

 jointed branches resembling those of the Equisetum. 



The yerba mansa is Anemopsis (Houttuynia\ Californica^ B. & H. 

 The involucre is petaloid and conspicuous, and each little, fleshy 

 flower is subtended by a minute white bract; the plant has a pungent 

 odor. There are several unique plant families that are sometimes 

 assigned to this group and sometimes left unclassified; the mistletoe 

 family Loranthaceae; the parasitic RafBesiacese, and the family Aris- 

 tolochiaceae; the last is mainly tropical, but two species, the Dutch- 

 man's pipe, Aristolochia Californica, Torr., and the wild ginger, 



109 



