204 THE PLANT WORLD 



When the beautiful word ' liane ' is sounded, a whole series of splendid 

 pictures stand out in strong relief from the twilight of youthful recollec- 

 tions. I see a dense, leafy canopy, lit by a straj' sunbeam here and there, 

 rise up like the columns of a spacious hall. On the forest floor the scanty 

 green of shade-loving ferns covers the remains of fallen trees. Farther 

 on a confused brown mass of tangled roots renders progress almost im- 

 possible. In contrast to these gloomy depths, how brilliant is the picture 

 in the glades and on the margin of the primeval forest ! Plant forms in 

 indescribable confusion piled up into the thickest of hedges rise higher 

 and higher to the very crowns of the giant trees, so that it is impossible 

 to obtain even a glimpse into the pillared hall of the interior of the forest. 

 This is the true and proper home of the liane. Everything climbs, winds, 

 twines with everything else, and the eye in vain attempts to ascertain 

 which stems, which foliage, which flowers and fruits belong to which. 

 Here the lianes weave and work green draperies and carpets in front 

 of the stems of the forest border, there they appear as swaying garlands, 

 or hanging down as ample curtains from the branches of the trees. In 

 other places they stretch in luxuriant festoons from bough to bough and 

 from tree to tree, forming suspension bridges, even actual arcades with 

 pointed and rounded arches. Isolated tree-trunks are transformed into 

 emerald pillars by the covering of woven lianes, or more frequently be- 

 come the centers of green pyramids over the summit of which the crown 

 spreads out in verdant plumes. Where the lianes have grown old with 

 the trees on which they cling, and the older portions of their stems have 

 been long stripped of foliage, they resemble ropes stretched between the 

 ground and the tree summits, and often assume peculiar and character- 

 istic forms. Sometimes drawn out tightly, sometimes limp and swaying, 

 they rise up from the undergrowth of the forest ground and become en- 

 tangled and lost far above among the boughs. Many are twisted like 

 the strands of a cable, others are wound like a cork-screw ; and others 

 again are flattened like ribbons, hollowed in pits, or shaped into elegant 

 steps — the celebrated monkey ladders." 



It must be remembered, too, that these plants, assuming so many and 

 varied positions, are frequently gay with flowers, among which float the 

 glorious, iridescent butterflies, or dart the gem-like humming-birds of 

 the tropics. Many of the plants are of the bignonia or trumpet-creeper 

 type, and present the gorgeous yellow or orange tubes of that brilliant 

 alliance. Plants of the pipe-vine order, too, are apt to assume this habit, 

 and offer to the observer their curiously shaped and colored flowers. But 

 a liane may be of almost any seed-bearing family of plants, the name 

 denoting a habit and not a blood relation. 



The word had its origin in the French Antilles, but from its beauty 

 and designation has found its way into most languages. Spier & Su- 



