lIERtt 1\ MULLKll ON SOME EKAZiLIAN CLIMIJIXO-PL ANTS. 315 



A member of the Hip-^- ^crateaccir, probably a Tontelia, is likewise 

 a branch climber. One ot its braaclies, three feet in length, liad 

 not as yet developed leaves, and resembled a gigantic tendril, 

 with most of its lateral branchlets already grasping neighbonring 

 objects. Prom the angles of the tendril-branches, other branches 

 arise, which as far as I have seen, are not sensitive, and never 

 clasp anything. This latter arrangement must be serviceable to 

 the plant ; for such branches grow upright witliout being arrested 

 m their course, whilst the plant is secured by the tendril-branches. 

 Caulotretus^ owe of the Leguminosa?, offers another case of ten- 

 drils being formed from modified branches. In the species which 

 I observed, the branches bear tendrils only in the angle of their 

 first leaf, and this leaf is always rudimentary. In young shoots 

 it might, at first sight, be thouglit that tendrils spring from the 

 axds of all their leaves. In this plant every tendril appears to con- 

 sist of two parts, separated by a small swelling — the inferior being 

 straight, the superior curved, with its end rolled into a helix. But 

 what appears to be the inferior part of a tendril is in fact the 

 nrst intcrnode of a youug branch, tlie swelling being its terminal 

 bud, and the tendril really S2)rings from this young branch, from 

 the angle of its first squamiform leaf, but nevertheless accom- 

 panied by two stipules. The end of the tendril very soon rolls up 

 into a lielix ; but it does not lose by this the faculty of catching 

 a support; on the contrary I know of no other tendrils which 

 become entangled with small objects so easily as these rollcd-u}), 

 highly elastic tendrils of the Caulotretus, 



By far more interesting than the tendrils of Sl/ycJuios and Caulo- 

 tretiis are those (PL IX. figs. 1 and 2) of a climbiug Papilionaceous 

 plant with a woody stem, which from its general aspect I sii})pose 

 to belong to the Dalhergicce^ Benth. They cousist of thin, slender, 

 flexible, leafless branches, with numerous (12 25) internodes, 

 armed with sharp, hard, hook-like stipules. The young, soft, 

 herbaceous shoots of this i:>lant which rise from the ground are 

 leafless. I saw one, seven feet high, which in its lower half Avas 

 naked, while the upper half bore about a dozen tendrils stretched 

 out in every direction. The oldest of these tendrils were from 

 Time to twelve inches long, and armed with from twelve to six- 

 teen pairs of sharp hooks : at the sides of the younger tendrils 

 there were large, foliaceous, deciduous stipules, and at their bases 



very small bract-like leaves. The hooks of tlie tendrils are evi- 



aeutly stipules, which so often in this family assume the form of 

 hooks or spines j in fact, while in the older tendrils they are 



2a2 



