348 IIERR F. MtLLER OS SOMK BRAZTLIA:^ CLTMBI^^G-PT.ANTS. 



the extremity of the branch, and with their leaves arranged in 

 two horizontal roAVS, they apparently form gigantic bipinnate 

 leaves; and when covered with their bluish-purple flowers, this 

 Secitridaca is one of the most elegant and magnificent plants of 

 our flora. 



From the last two plants it is but one step to the primordial 

 and simplest condition of branch climbers, exhibited by the nu- 

 merous species Avhich scramble up a thicket without twining and 

 without the aid of rootlets, hooks, or tendrils. 



Thus we can trace in the development of branch climbers the 

 foUowino^ stages : — 



1. Plants supporting themselves only by their brunches stretched 

 out at right angles — for example, Chiococca. 



2. Plants clasping a support with their branches unmodified 

 Secitridaca {Ilippocratia according to Endlicher, Gen. Plant. Iso. 

 5709, " arbores v. frutices, ramis contortis scandentes "). 



3. Plants climbing with the tendril-like ends of their branches. 

 According to Endlicher (Gen. PI. jVo. 5745), this is the case with 

 Ilelinus ('* ramulorum apicibus cirrhosis scandeus"). 



4. Plants with higlily modified tendrils, wdiich may, however, 

 be transformed again into branches — for example, the above- 

 mentioned Papilionaceous j^lant. 



5. Plants with tendrils used exclusively for climbing — Strychios, 



Ca 1(1 otrc tits, 



I Avill here add a fcAv miscellaneous observations. You de- 

 scribe some species of Bipionia in which the tips of the tendrils 

 become enlarged and adhesive after remaining for a short time in 

 contact with some object ; but the trifid tendrils of Ilaploloplnum, 

 one of tlie Bignoniacea^, terminate (without having come into con- 

 tact with any object) in smooth shining disks, which, however, 

 after adhesion, sometimes become considerably enlarged. In Car- 

 diospermiun you state that the common peduncle which bears the 

 subpeduncles with the flower-buds and the pair of short tendrils, 

 although it spontaneously revolves, does not bend on contact or 

 contract spirally; hence it may be worth mentioning, as showing 

 a diftercnce in the action of the tendrils in related genera, that 

 in Serjania the common peduncle contracts spirally when the 

 single tendril which it bears has clasped, as frequently happens, 

 the plant's own stem. 



"With respect to spirally twining plants, you state that though 

 the Ilihhcrtia dentata sometimes revolves in one direction and. 

 Bometimes in the other, yet it invariably twines from left to right. 



I 



