Miscellaneous. 513 



The Victoria regia used as Food. 



On the Riachuelo, which empties into the Parana nine miles 

 below Corrientes, I was fortunate in obtaining some rare birds, and 

 in seeing — what alone would have repaid for a longer journey — the 

 queen of the NymphcBaceae upon its native waters. Extensive shal- 

 low lagoons — pure and limpid — were gemmed with islands of the 

 Victoria regia or * Mais del Agua' (corn of the water), as it is called 

 in the country ; for it is not only the queen of the floral tribes, but 

 ministers to the necessities of man. Its seeds, which are about the 

 size of a large buck-shot, consist of a thin shell enclosing a white 

 mealy substance. They are gathered by the Corrientinos, and 

 pounded into meal, from which they make excellent and nutritious 

 bread. — Page's * La Plata, the Argentine Confederation, and Para- 

 guay.' New York, 1859. 



On the Coiling of Tendrils. By Prcf. Asa Gray. 



As much as twenty years ago, Mohl suggested that the coiling of 

 tendrils "resulted from an irritability Qnciiedi by contact.'* In 1850 

 he remarked that this view has had no particular approval to boast of, 

 yet that nothing better has been put in its place. And in another 

 paragraph of his admirable little treatise on the Vegetable Cell 

 contributed to Wagner's Cyclopaedia of Physiology) he briefly says, 

 " In my opinion, a dull irritability exists in the stems of twining 

 plants and in tendrils." In other words, he suggests that the phse- 

 nomenon is of the same nature, and owns the same cause (whatever 

 that may be) as the closing of the leaves of the Sensitive-plant at 

 the touch, and a variety of similar movements observed in plants. 

 The object of this note is to remark that the correctness of this view 

 may be readily demonstrated. 



For the tendrils in several common plants will coil up more or less 

 promptly after being touched, or brought with a slight force into 

 contact with a foreign body, and in some plants the movement of 

 coiling is rapid enough to be directly seen by the eye ; indeed, is 

 considerably quicker than is needfnl for being visible. And, to com- 

 plete the parallel, as the leaves of the Sensitive-plant, and the like, 

 after closing by irritation, resume after a while their ordinary ex- 

 panded position, so the tendrils, in two species of the Cucurbitacea, 

 or Squash family, experimented upon, after coiling in consequence 

 of a touch, will uncoil into a straight position in the course of an 

 hour ; then they will coil up at a second touch, often more quickly 

 than before ; and this may be repeated three or four times in the 

 course of six or seven hours. 



My cursory observations have been principally made upon the 

 Bur- Cucumber (»S'2cyo« angulatus). To see the movement well, full- 

 grown and outstretched tendrils, which have not reached any support, 

 should be selected, and a warm day : 77° Fahr. is high enough. 



A tendril which was straight, except a slight hook at the tip, on 

 being gently touched once or twice with a piece of wood on the upper 



Ann. ^ Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 3. Vol. iii. 33 



