Wild Flowers of Georgetown. 333 



ing roots had just reached the ground, but were still too 

 thin and flexible to support the parasite, or rather epi- 

 phyte, as an independent tree; but it was raised and 

 propped up at its original height, and now the roots, 

 though thev have not twined together to make a central 

 trunk as they would naturally have done, have developed 

 into four stout supports enabling the tree to stand alone. 

 On the oronoque next below this may be seen a fig in 

 its earlier parasitical stage, sending down roots to the 

 soil, but still growing on the branches of its host. 



Taking another line of enquiry, and returning for a 

 time to the little sweetheart pods that cling to every 

 passing body, we shall find that this is but one of many 

 ways that plants have of disseminating their seeds as 

 widely as possible in fresh soil. Whether these adapta- 

 tions are due to creative design, or gradual evolution, or 

 both, need not be discussed here ; the end attained is 

 the same in any case. It is well known that land will 

 not bear fresh crops of the same kind year after year 

 without exhaustion ; every farmer knows that after two 

 or three years his plantains or bananas fall off so much 

 that it is useless to keep the old beds under the same 

 cultivation ; and the rule applies to all crops, though 

 some exhaust the soil more rapidly than others. Hence 

 if a plant always dropped its seed, as unadapted seed 

 would drop, upon the ground beneath it, fewer and 

 fewer of its seedlings would survive each sowing, and 

 the enfeebled plant would ultimately disappear, ousted 

 by stronger rivals. But there are endless means by 

 which plants find new nurseries for their progeny. Some 

 seeds, as we have seen, are provided with bristles or 

 spines or hooks, so that every passing animal carries 



