Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 August 1884 — A Remarkable Myrtaceous Plant. [ARTICLE]

A Remarkable Myrtaceous Plant.

One of the most remarkable trees, whidhiwas pointed out to me, is the Bata, & Metrosideros M. robusta. This, though a myrtaceous plant, has all the hab ts of the Indian figs, reproducing them in the closest manner. It starts from a seed dropped in the fork of a tree, and grows downward to reach the ground, then taking root there and ganing strength, chokes the supporting tree, and entirely destroys it, forming a large trunk by fusion of its many stems. Nevertheless, it occasionally grows originally directly from the soil, and then forms a trunk more regular in form. Another, Metrosideros M. florid a, is a regular climber. —Notes of a naturalist on the “Challenger The orchid epidendum cilare smells precisely like roasted apples.