HEREDITARY DISEASE OF FICUS TSIELA. 81' 



The following is the answer of Dr. Barklay to whom was submit- 

 ted one specimen for examination : — 



Kennedy Cottage, Simla, 



2lst October, 1891. 



" I have now examined the specimen of Fictis tsiela you so 

 kindly sent me, but find no evidence that the abnormalities you 

 observed are due to the fungal invasion. I made several sections 

 of a twig bearing the smaller and more numerous leaves, and 

 staining with Gentian violet could find no trace of mycelium* 

 If you like, I will, with pleasure, send you a slide for your own 

 inspection. It is possible that the dying of the specimens, while 

 in transit, destroyed any mycelial filaments which they may have 

 contained when fresh, though I do not think this probable. In 

 the absence of a fungal cause I am at a loss to suggest any 

 causation for the remarkable phenomenon." 

 Aerial Roots.— It is believed by many, even by Botanists, that 

 Ficus tsiela, Eoxb., does not send down* root-drops, or aerial roots. 

 Some of the authors who have described the plant, are silent on the 

 point, though they mention trees from the branches of which 

 aerial roots shoot out. Dr. Roxburgh {Flora Indica) is explicit. 

 He says: — "Bark smooth, greenish, no roots from the trunk nor 

 branches." Wright in his Icon. Plant, says :— " It is very generally 

 planted by road-sides for the sake of its shade, and by not sending 

 down roots from the branches is so far superior to either F. Indica 

 (Banyan tree) or F. Benjamina, Linn., the pendulous roots of which 

 are often dangerous impediments on a road. " Beddome, Manual of 

 Forrestry, says :— *' No roots from the trunk or branches." Dr, King, 

 in his memoir above alluded to, says : — ''A large spreading tree 

 without aerial roots, all parts glabrous." Sir J. Hooker in the 

 Flora of British India repeats Dr. King's statement. Are we to think 

 that trees in Bengal and elsewhere are free from this kind of roots ? 

 For there is no doubt that many Pipree trees (not all) are seen in 

 Poena bearing down abimdant aerial roots (see specimen on the 

 table), though never so long as to reach the ground. Generally 

 speaking, they are about one yard long. The roots of F. retusa, Linn. 

 (Nundrook), and F. Benjamina, Linn., do not also, so far as my 

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