464 ZOOLOGY 



been found, -it may be necessary to go half a mile to 

 find another. A Dutch botanist records finding 600 

 species of arborescent plants in an area of about i 

 square miles in the Malay Archipelago. When Pro- 

 fessor Beccari was building a small house in the Bornean 

 forest, he found three small trees in such a position 

 as to be exactly suitable for corner posts. So he cut 

 off the tops, and secured a fourth post for the remaining 

 corner. On looking at the tops he had removed, he 

 found that his three trees were all of different genera 

 and all represented species new to science. It will 

 readily be understood that under the conditions de- 

 scribed the "struggle for existence" is extreme. Each 

 plant produces a multitude of seeds, but few of these 

 ever grow into mature plants. The two most necessary 

 things are room and light. There is no space for new 

 trees until the old ones die. Then they are rapidly 

 destroyed by insects, fungi, and bacteria, and there 

 is a scramble to secure the open space. Epiphytes, 

 living far aloft, may secure access to light which they 

 could not have lower down. Certain trees of the fig 

 group, called "malo palo" or bad tree in Guatemala, 

 by means of their great aerial roots surround great 

 trunks in the forest and eventually strangle and destroy 

 their victims, trees of other species, in order to 

 take their place. 



3. Such luxuriance and variety of vegetation makes 

 possible a corresponding variety of animal life. In- 

 sects, in particular, are extremely numerous and varied. 

 All those creatures which feed on vegetation become 

 adapted to particular kinds of trees and other plants. 

 Thus a given tree will have its special fauna, feeding 

 on the roots, trunk, branches, leaves, or visiting the 

 flowers. The creepers which ascend the trunk will 



