FIRST   JOURNEY.  5

On  viewing  the  stately  trees  around  him,  the  natu-
ralist will  observe  many  of  them  bearing  leaves,  and
blossoms,  and  fruit  not  their  own.
The  wild  fig-tree,  as  large  as  a  common  English
The  wild  apple-tree,  often  rears  itself  from  one  of  the
thick  branches  at  the  top  of  the  mora ;  and
when  its  fruit  is  ripe,  to  it  the  birds  resort  for  nourish-
ment. It  was  to  an  undigested  seed,  passing  through
the  body  of  the  bird  which  had  perched  on  the  mora,
that  the  fig-tree  first  owed  its  elevated  station  there.
The  sap  of  the  mora  raised  it  into  full  bearing ;  but
now,  in  its  turn,  it  is  doomed  to  contribute  a  portion  of
its  own  sap  and  juices  towards  the  growth  of  different
species  of  vines,  the  seeds  of  which,  also,  the  birds
deposited  on  its  branches.  These  soon  vegetate,  and
bear  fruit  in  great  quantities ;  so,  what  with  their
usurpation  of  the  resources  of  the  fig-tree,  and  the  fig-
tree  of  the  mora,  the  mora,  unable  to  support  a  charge
which  nature  never  intended  it  should,  languishes  and
dies  under  its  burden ;  and  then  the  fig-tree,  and  its
usurping  progeny  of  vines,  receiving  no  more  succour
from  their  late  foster-parent,  droop  and  perish  in  their
turn.
