34 XKW XKAI.AXD PI, ANTS. 



noted those which bear spores,* and those which function as ordinary 

 leaves but between the two are all kinds of transitional stages, very 

 interesting to observe. 



Those beautiful flowering-plants, the clematises, are tendril 

 climbers, the tendrils being modified leaf-stalks. Clcnidfix imtirixa 

 is the large white-flowered species ; C. hexasepala has also white but 

 smaller flowers ; (_'. Colensoi produces masses of yellow flowers in 

 the spring. It is especially abundant in the Wellington Province. 

 (\ afoliata is a curious form which looks rather like a mass of iushe3. 

 It has few or no true leaves ; but they would be a harm rather than a 

 benefit, for it grows in extremely dry places. All the New Zealand 

 species of Clematis have male and female flowers on separate plants, 

 the male being much the more showy. 



The New Zealand passion-flower (Tetrapathaea austral it) is another 

 tendril climber. In autumn its orange or red fruits, containing nume- 

 rous black seeds, are very showy. It is not found everywhere, and 

 does not go farther south than Banks Peninsula. 



All the lianes are worthy of the closest study, and not the least 

 interesting point is to observe the differences between the climbing 

 and non-climbing shoots. Also, it is remarkable how certain species, 

 such as some of the. lawyers and Metrosideros scandens. are lianes under 

 one set of conditions and virtually shrubs under another. It is 

 interesting, too. to grow this class of plants from seed, and to observe 

 how the climbing habit is not shown at all, or very little, by the early 

 seedling (fig. 12). 



Another method by which plants seek the light is to boldly leave 

 the ground and perch high on the trees. Most instructive transitions 

 between this perching habit and the normal may be observed in any 

 New Zealand forest. The perching-lilies (Astclia) (fig. '.)) also grow on 

 rocks or form huge clumps on the ground. Many ferns live indifferently 

 either on trees or the forest-floor, as does also the lovely shrul.by 

 forest-groundsel (Senecio Kirkii). Certain plants are almost exclusively 

 perchers (epiphytic). Thus Pittosporum cornifolium and P. Kirkii 

 ar< of this class, and it is interesting that all the other members of the 

 are ordinary terrestrial trees or shrubs. Urixflhi'm lm-i<ln. with 



* A spore is any single cell that becomes free from the parent plant and is 

 capable of developing into a new individual. The spores of ferns are contained 

 in spore-cases, and uroups of these make the dots or round patches on the under- 

 surfaces of some of the leaves of ferns. 



