:iiAi'. Til 



GUILDS 



197 



Fig. 1 10. Transverse section of stem of Seciiridaca 

 lanceolata, St.-Hil. Natural size. After li. Sclienck. 



re unfavourable to the production of long axes^. The guild therefore 

 ihabits an enormous area, although it is very unequally distributed. In 

 y far the majority of cases, lianes are inhabitants of the tropics and of 

 few neighbouring lands with 



tropical climate, such as 

 Jouthern Brazil and South 

 lorida. According to an 

 stimate. which H. Schenck 

 onsiders as probably too low, 

 bout ten-elevenths or over 

 incty per cent, of the lianes 

 re tropical. Even in the 

 lopics the distribution of 

 anes is very unequal ; most 

 f the long woody forms 

 nly appear in damp rain- 

 crests and monsoon-forests ", 

 •hilst dry woodlands and 



ivannahs produce hardly any but thin-stemmed and chiefly herbaceous 

 )rms. 



Outside the tropics, lianes occur chiefly in temperate rain-forests in 

 outhern Japan. New Zealand. Southern Chili, more rarely and in less 

 ariety in very damp summer-forests^ in Central Japan, Atlantic and 



entral North America, without showing anything like such variety as 

 1 the tropics. 



2. EPIPHYTES*. 



Epiphytes are plants that germinate on other plants and grow without 

 btaining nutriment at the cost of the substance of their host. In this 

 hey diff'er from true parasites, with wdiich they are often confounded. 



Their mode of life makes the acquisition of the necessary nourishment 



matter of difficult)-, but starvation is not the chief danger to which 

 liey are exposed. Epiphytes, attached as they are to the surface of other 

 lants, are more exposed to the danger of drought, and they are con- 

 equentl}' confined to regions where long persistent drought is unknown, 

 xcept when they have the faculty of existing in a desiccated condition, 



power which is possessed by many mosses and lichens, but which appears 

 be altogether wanting in ferns and phanerogams, in spite of the ability 

 fa few species to withstand very considerable loss of water. The epiphytic 

 ;uild therefore exhibits, according to the nature of the climate, an in- 

 quality in systematic composition and in diversity and luxuriance of growth. 



Districts where a drying up of the plants owing to scarcity of water is 

 ' See Part III, Sects. Ill and IV. ' See Part III, Sect. I, Chap. III. 



' See Part III, Sect. II. ■* Schimper, op. cit. 



