APPENDIX 



the banks of the Upper Sarawak river, which should come under the head 

 of stenophyllous plants. 



Fici.— The collection of the genus Fiats made by me in Borneo, con- 

 sisting of 55 species, has been accurately determined by Sir George 

 King (v. Annals of the Roy. Botanic Garden, Calcutta, vol. i., 1887-88), 

 which circumstance gives me an opportunity of commenting on some 

 of the more salient biological peculiarities of the species of that genus 

 which are found on the island. 



The topmost leaf-mass in the forests is largely composed of the 

 ioliage of trees of the genus Ficus, whether springing from a separate 

 unsupported trunk rising straight from the ground, or from some gigantic 

 epiphyte which has later become arborescent. But species of Ficus 

 are found everywhere in all kinds of situations and all sorts of forests, 

 the vegetative adaptations of these plants being infinite. Some species 

 of Ficus are diminutive epiphytes (F. diver si folia, Bl. ; F. Borneensis, 

 P. B., No. 1246 and 274 = F. diversifolia Borneensis, King ; F. linearis, 

 Becc, P. B., No. 2501). Others climb at first on tree-trunks and on 

 rocks (F. adherens, Miq. ; F . crininervia, Miq. ; F. punctata, Thunb., 

 etc.), and mount up to the tops of the most lofty trees. These adhering 

 species, as already stated, often have the leaves of the first period of 

 growth applied against the bark of the trees or to the surface of the rocks 

 on which they creep, and different from those developed later and higher 

 up. Some of the creeping kinds grow first as an epiphyte on a high tree, 

 and then develop large rope-like roots very much like the stems of 

 lianas, which reach the ground. These produce at various heights 

 large brightly coloured fruits (F. callicarpa, Miq.). A few species become 

 big trees of the primeval forest, whilst several, which do not attain a large 

 size, abound in the forest of secondary growth, along the river banks, 

 and on the coast. Many are epiphytes. Some are so at one period and not 

 at another. Some enclose their hosts in meshes of colossal size (F. 

 glabella, Bl. and F. caulocarpa, Miq.) and become themselves gigantic 

 trees. Others develop numerous roots from their branches, which either 

 become secondary trunks or else remain cord-like (F. retusa, T. ; F. 

 Benjamina, T.). 



The remarkable biological relations subsisting between insects 

 (Hymenoptera) and the Ficus during fecundation, and the constant 

 presence, in the receptacula of all the species of this genus, of galloid 

 flowers which contain the larva of a hymenopterous insect, or which, 

 even when such a larva is not present, maintain through the force of 

 heredity a galloid shape, shows how great an influence insects must 

 have had in the morphological plasmation of the receptacula of Ficus. 



The production of male flowers in this genus, like the impregnation 

 of the ovuli, is biologically so bound up with insects, that I do not think 

 it improbable that the present flask-shaped receptacula are due to 

 deformation caused by insects, during the epoch of greater energy in 

 the plasmative forces, in flat receptacula similar in nature to those of a 

 Dorstenia. 



The species of Ficus in Borneo have leaves of diversified form and 

 aspect. Most are entire, sometimes lobate, rarely pinnatilobate, polished, 

 opaque, coriaceous, herbaceous, membranaceous, rough, verrucose, 



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