THE FOKKSTS. 33 



have been strangled to death, while others have Kroken ;i\\;i.v from 

 the branch to which they had clung. The two species of Muehlni- 

 beckia, relatives of the common dock, are also twining-plants. Thev 

 are easily recognised by their soft, green, abundant leaves, and when 

 in fruit by the small black nuts seated on a fleshy and almost tran> 

 parent cup. Very frequently, as bush boys and girls well know, their 

 rope-like stems hang swaying from the forest-roof, the original support 

 long vanished. Parsonsia heterophyUa, a pretty plant producing 

 abundance of small sweet-scented flowers, is another verv common 



it 



twining-liane. It occurs especially on the forest-outskirts, or when; 

 the bush has been partially cleared. It and its near relative. P. <-n/i- 

 sularis, may be recognised by the curious long green fruit, something 

 like a kidney-bean in outward appearance. It is especially remark- 

 able for the diversity of forms assumed by its leaves. These may be 

 arranged into three series viz., small round, long narrow, and finally 

 moderately broad and of an oblong type. Between the small round 

 and the long narrow are all kinds of transitional forms. One variety 

 of the related P. capsularis never reaches the final adult stage, but 

 produces flowers while in the narrow-leaved condition, and so it 

 may perhaps be considered a fixed juvenile form of Parsonsia 

 hcterophylla. 



The mange-mange (Lygodium articulatum) is a beautiful climbing- 

 fern, whose masses of tough slender stems wound round one another 

 make a substitute for a wire-wove mattress by no means to be despised. 

 The leaf of an ordinary fern consists of a stalk and blade, the con- 

 tinuation of the former being called the midrib. The blade may be 

 divided or undivided ; in the former case the divisions may be little 

 leaves, each with its own stalk. In nearly all cases the leaf continues 



/ 



to increase in length for a certain time, when its growth is concluded. 

 There is usually no further increase year after year. But the remark- 



/ * 



able fern we are considering (Lygodium) is regulated by no such rule. 

 for its midribs may continue to grow until the leaf is so long as to reach 

 the tops of tall trees. The midrib thus has become a climbing organ, 

 and a leaf many yards in length is different altogether from what one 

 imagines a leaf to be. At regular intervals lateral leaflets, which are 

 also capable of great extension, are given off from the midrib, one at 

 a time, and distant from each other about 4 in., each being furnished 

 with a verv short stalk. Two quite different kinds of leaflets may U- 



