LIANAS 



305 



leaves wave in the wind. ... If I move from the footpath 

 it may well happen that at the first steps my hat is torn 

 from my head, that the hooks cast out on every side catch 

 my clothes, and that bleeding tears on cheek and hands 

 warn me once and for all to beware. Looking at this gin, 

 near which I have come, I see that the stalks of the graceful 

 feathered leaves of the Rotang palm are provided with 

 extremely elastic and flexible extensions, one or two metres 

 long, on which are numerous very stiff half-whorls of re- 



A^D. 



Fig. 47. — Stems of Lianas : i, cross-section of Paullinia ; 2, of Rhyn- 



chosia. X 3. 



versed hooks. Each leaf runs out into a horrid lash of this 

 nature which lets not lightly go what once it holds. . . . 

 Very flexible, they are waved by the wind to the branches 

 of supporting trees, and there anchor themselves so fast 

 by their numerous hooks that no storm can tear them loose. 

 . . . The smooth snake-like stem reaches in mighty undula- 

 tions up through the branch work of the tree, creeps over 

 on to neighbouring crowns, and, finally, lifts its youngest 

 leaves over the tips of the supporting tree. It can go no 

 further, for the lashes are whipped round in empty air. But 



X 



