332 TlMEHRI. 



fe6l mode of climbing, when a weak-stemmed plant just 

 scrambles up bv leaning on any support it meets, without 

 special means for holding on. In this way the common, 

 rather coarse-looking wild marigold or yellow ox-eye 

 (Wnlffia stenoglossa) , straggles up for ten or twelve feet 

 among the bush. And everyone must notice the pretty 

 pale-yellow flower (Asystasia coromandelina) , abundant 

 about the roots of the trees, and trailing among the 

 grass, which it seems agreed here to eall a primrose, 

 though it is little like the real primrose except 

 in colour. We might call it the African primrose from 

 its original home, but it is now quite naturalised here 

 in several parts. 



Some plants climb down instead of up, like the figs, 



which germinate from bird-dropped seeds on the branches 



of trees, and at once begin to make for the ground by 



slender hanging and trailing roots ; these twist together 



as they go, and at last, gaining new vigour like the 



fabled giant from touching mother-earth, form stout 



trunks which support the plant as an independent tree 



alter its host has fallen. There are several native figs in 



various stages of their growth in the avenue. In the 



tree stage we may notice one just above the round 



summer-house, which, when fruiting in the autumn, is 



covered with a multitude of little pea-shaped figs, pale 



brown spotted with red, which provide a rare feast for the 



kiskadees, ground doves, and other birds. On the south 



side of the avenue, about a hundred yards below the cross 



road, we shall find a small tree, apparently with four 



trunks, that well illustrates the manner of their growth. 



The aged oronoque on which this fig was growing fell 



in a sudden squall about two years ago, when the hang- 



