PLANTS THAT ROB AND MURDER 63 
Devil’s-thread, whose luxurious and prolific life is 
practically unmolested, when once it gets a start. 
In great tropical forests there is a spirit of ter- 
rible selfishness and combat. Every individual tree 
and plant seems to be struggling to surpass those 
about it, heeding no law of social responsibility, but 
twining itself about the nearest supporting neigh- 
bour, reaching, stretching, clawing, caring not 
what destruction it causes, aiming always upward 
to the light and air above. The parasites cling 
everywhere to others, which cannot throw them off. 
Clearly here in the wilds, as in tribes of uncivilised 
humans, there is but one law of life, that of the 
survival of the fittest! 
The Murderer Liana is a parasite of the most 
unscrupulous kind, whose weak stem is unable to 
support its avaricious and ponderous head, and who 
therefore clings to its upright neighbours for sup- 
port. It springs up beside a stalwart tree, and as 
its stem grows, it spreads out like a soft poultice 
upon the trunk of the tree. Then it climbs by 
sending out clinging arms, wrapping them around 
the body of its victim, and joining them on the 
other side. Up and up climbs the strangler, al- 
ways sending out new arms around the stricken 
tree, and the arms always growing thicker and 
heavier to support the increasing weight; until at 
