IN IDLE MOMENT 27 



tint. The dense, light, semi-drooping foliage produces 

 a cloud-like effect, to which the great masses of buff 

 flowers add a delightful fleeciness, while the ripe pods, 

 much twisted and involved (to carry similitude as 

 far as it may), might be likened to dull lightning in 

 thunderous vapour. The tree flourishes in almost pure 

 sand within a few yards of salt water, and, being hardy 

 and of clean habit, might well be used decoratively. 



Standing with its feet awash at high tide, the huge 

 fig-tree began life as a parasite, the seed planted by a 

 beak-cleaning bird in a crevice of the bark of its fore- 

 runner. In time the host disappeared, embraced and 

 absorbed. Now the tree is a sturdy host. Another 

 fig envelops some of its branches, two umbrella-trees 

 cling stubbornly to its sides, a pandanus palm grows 

 comfortably at the base of a limb, tons of staghorn, 

 bird's-nest, polypodium, and other epiphytal ferns, 

 have licence to flourish, orchids hang decoratively, and 

 several shrubs spring aspiringly among its roots. But 

 the big tree still asserts its individuality. It is the host, 

 the others merely dependents or tenants. Most of the 

 functions of the tree are associated with the sea. Twice 

 a year it studs its branches with pink fruit, food for 

 many weeks for a carnival of birds, the relics of the 

 feast dully carpeting the sand. Before the first fruiting 

 the old leaves fall, and for a brief interval the shadows 

 of branches and twigs, intricate, involved, erratic, 

 might be likened to unschooled scribblings, with here 

 a flourish and there a blot and many a boisterous 

 smudge. Soon it is merely a question of days the 

 swelling buds displace millions of leaf-sheaves, pale 

 green and fragile, which fall and, curling in on them- 

 selves, redden, and again the yellow sand is littered, 

 while overhead fresh foliage, changing rapidly from 

 golden, glistening brown to rich dark green, makes one 



