46 WONDERS OF THE TROPICAL FORESTS. 
tlie ori^nal root aro weakened, tbe trunk sends forth naw 
props to restore the equilibrium ; and thus the tough and 
hardy race continually acquires fresh strength for the ruin 
of its neij^hboiirri. 
Several species of the fig-tree are peculiarly remarkable 
for this distinctive property, and, from the facility with 
which their seeds take ixjot where there is a sufliciency of 
moisture to }>ennit of geroiinatioii, are fonuidable assail- 
ants of ancient monuments. Sir Emerson Tennent 
nientions one which hud fixed itself on the walls of a 
ruined edifice at Polanarrna, and formed one of the most 
remarkable objects of the place, its roots streaming down- 
wards over the walls as if their wood had once been fluid, 
and ibUowiup- every sinuosity of the building and terraces 
till they reached the earth. 
On the borders of the Rio Guama, Von Martius saw 
whole groups of Jfacanba palms encased in fig-trees that 
foriued thick tubes round the shafts of the palms, whose 
noble crowns rose high above them ; and a similar spectacle 
occurs in India and Ceylon, where tlie Tamils look with 
increased veneration on their sacred pippul thus nnited in 
marriage with the palmyra. After the incarcerated trutik 
has been stilled and destroyed, the grotestjue form of the 
parasite, tubular, cork-screw-like, or otherwise fantastically 
contorted, and frequently admitting the light through 
iuterstices like loopholes in a turret, continues to niairi- 
taiu an independent existence among the straight-stemmed 
trees of the forest — the image of an eccentric genius in 
the midst of a group of ^^edate citizens. 
Like the mosses and lichens of our woods, parasites of 
endless variety and almost inconceivable size and luxuri- 
ance cover in the tropical zone the trunks and branches 
of tbe forest trees, forming hanging gardens, far more 
splendid than those of ancient Babylon. While the 
orchids are distinguished by the eccentric forms and 
splendid colouring of their flowers, sometimes resembling 
winged insects or birds, the Pothos family attract atten- 
