72 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. 



" Several of the ripened seeds, still enclosed in their peri- 

 carps,* are generally detached together from the parent plant ; 

 they adhere by their viscid filaments, and are carried by the 

 birds, winds, or other natural causes, from one tree to 

 another, where they may often be seen hanging entangled 

 amongst the leaves and twigs. The grain is placed almost 

 in contact with the stem ; it is immaterial to which sur- 

 face/'' As described from one species in which Dr. Hooker 

 closely watched the process, that part of the seed from which 

 the future stem of the plant is to be developed becomes 

 elongated when the seed springs, and pushes away, by this 

 process, the old disc and style, which fall away ; " the radi- 

 cle always escapes at this point and protrudes beyond the 

 pericarp, to which the embryo remains attached until the 

 parasite has gained a firm lodgment on the tree. 



This union however is anything but a happy one in its 

 results to either party ; for though " a branch attacked by 

 the Myzodendron suffers no apparent change below their 

 point of union, all beyond it, being insufficiently nourished, 

 does not increase in proportion, and after a time dies from 

 atrophy;" and the parasite, having thus injured the sup- 

 porting branch on which it grew, itself dies away, after 

 * Seed-vessels. 



