Chap. V. CONCLUDING EEMARKS. 205 



Finally, climbing plants are sufficiently numerous to 

 form a conspicuous feature in the vegetable kingdom, 

 more especially in tropical forests. America, which so 

 abounds with arboreal animals, as Mr. Bates remarks, 

 likewise abounds according to Mohl and Palm with 

 climbing plants ; and of the tendril-bearing plants 

 examined by me, the highest developed kinds are 

 natives of this grand continent, namely, the several 

 species of Bignonia, Eccremocarpus, Cobwa, and Ampe- 

 lopsis. But even in the thickets of our temperate 

 regions the number of climbing species and individuals 

 is considerable, as will be found by counting them. 

 They belong to many and widely different orders. To 

 gain some rude idea of their distribution in the vegetable 

 series, I marked, from the lists given by Mohl and Palm 

 (adding a few myself, and a competent botanist, no 

 doubt, could have added many more), all those families 

 in Lindley's * Vegetable Kingdom ' which include 

 twiners, leaf-climbers, or tendril-bearers. Lindley 

 divides Phanerogamic plants into fifty-nine Alliances ; 

 of these, no less than thirty-five include climbing plants 

 of the above kinds, hook and root-climbers being ex- 

 cluded. To these a few Cryptogamic plants must be 

 added. When we reflect on the wide separation of these 

 plants in the series, and when we know that in some cf 

 the largest, well-defined orders, such as the Composite, 

 ftubiaceae, Scrophulariaceoe, Liliacea?, &c, species in 

 only two or three genera have the power of climbing, 

 the conclusion is forced on our minds that the capacity of 

 revolving, on which most climbers depend, is inherent, 



