HERU F. MUlLER 0:N" SOME BRAZILIAN CIJHBIT^G-PLAKTS. 347 



sory bud. One of the tendrils was thirty inches long ; it had 

 twenty -five pairs of hooks, and at the tip three short hiternodes 

 with leaves and destitute of hooks ; from its sevonteontli inter- 

 node a branch arose. Excej^ting their hook-like stipules, by 

 which they may bo easily recognizedj the branches formed by 

 tendrils resemble in almost every respect the ordinary branches ; 

 but, as far as I have seen, they never produce tendrils, nor do the 

 branches which spring from an internode of a tendril or (as I 

 have already stated) from an accessory bud. 



If we restrict the name of tendrils to filamentary organs used 

 exdiisivelif for climbing, those of the present plant would be ex- 

 cluded 5 for after having done their work as tendrils^ they may be 

 transformed into, and do all the work of, branches. 



While in this plant the highly modified tendrils may be changed 

 again into true branches, in two other plants which I have seen, 

 the brai:iches tlieinselves, without having suffered any modification, 

 act as tendrils. One of these plants belongs to the Dalhergiecd. 

 Many of its branches had clasped small branches of a tree. These 

 tendril branches, as they may be called, had not continued to 

 grow beyond the support ; and where they touched it, most of 

 them had thickened : some showed a tendency to spiral contrac- 

 tion, forming a semicircle between the support and the stem. 

 The plant does not twine. I may add that another genus, be- 

 longing to the same section of the Leguminosa?, namely Ilecmta- 

 plfijUum, is also a branch climber. 



The second plant above referred to Is a SecuriJaca (Polyga- 

 lacejjc), and a most powerful climber (fig. 3). Its branches often 

 curve in a very odd and complicated manner. Tlius I saw a thin 

 branch, which w4th its lateral twigs had become curved like ribs 

 into semicircles (about four inches in diameter), imitating the 

 bones of the thorax ; from the twigs sprang secondary branch- 

 lets, which were very regularly curved, twisted together^ and 

 formed into a sort of network around the middle hollow space. 

 When the branches wind round a support, they thicken and be- 

 come moz^e rigid, like true tendrils ; but even these thickened 

 parts may bear leaves or secondary branches. In tlie preceding 

 plant the branches seem to be arrested in their lon'^itudinal 



growth when they clasp a support; in the present plant they 

 continue to grow, and the same branch may successively catch 

 different objects. The branches which project freely from a 

 thicket are rather thin and slender : with their twiga spreading 

 all in the same horizontal plane and diminishing in length towards 



