I have not closely observed many root-climbers, but can give one
curious fact. Ficus repens climbs up a wall just like Ivy; and when
the young rootlets are made to press lightly on slips of glass, they
emit after about a week's interval, as I observed several times,
minute drops of clear fluid, not in the least milky like that exuded
from a wound. This fluid is slightly viscid, but cannot be drawn out
into threads. It has the remarkable property of not soon drying; a
drop, about the size of half a pin's head, was slightly spread out on
glass, and I scattered on it some minute grains of sand. The glass
was left exposed in a drawer during hot and dry weather, and if the
fluid had been water, it would certainly have dried in a few minutes;
but it remained fluid, closely surrounding each grain of sand, during
128 days: how much longer it would have remained I cannot say. Some
other rootlets were left in contact with the glass for about ten days
or a fortnight, and the drops of secreted fluid were now rather
larger, and so viscid that they could be drawn out into threads.
Some other rootlets were left in contact during twenty-three days,
and these were firmly cemented to the glass.
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