1873. ] TENDRILS OF VINES. CONVERTIBLE VASE FOR FLOWERS OR FRUITS. 137 



colour and tlie deep green of the matured leaves renders tlie plants exceedingly 

 beautiful at the time they are in course of development." The young leaves of 

 D, periacanthus are straw-coloured, instead of cinnamon-coloured. — T. Mooee. 



TENDRILS OF VINES. 



'HOSE who are acquainted with Vines know well that, like many other 

 climbing plants, they have tendrils or claspers for support. Those of the 

 vine shoot out from the young wood on the opposite side to the •'■ leaf-buds," 

 and also on the shanks of the bunches. It may not, however, have been 

 generally observed that those tendrils which do not catch hold of some con- 

 tiguous substance soon decay, while those that have caught hold last throughout 

 the season. This may seem strange, because in both cases the tendril must have 

 equal support or nutriment from the vine ; therefore the cause of the decay of 

 the unfixed tendrils must be traced to some other source. At present I can onlj'- 

 suppose that they resemble the defunct sinew or tendon of an animal, and which 

 has become so by lack of use. It is an odd comparison, but I ha>e none that 

 better answers my purpose. 



Last season, I fixed some small pins of lead upon a few vine-tendills. In some 

 cases they were beyond the reach of their claws or ends, and these tendrils 

 soon withered, while those that could lay hold of and curl round thi^ pieces 

 of lead lived through the season, no doubt, because they were enabled ik some 

 measure to fulfil their functions, which the others were not able to do, and 

 so became defunct in a similar way, as before observed, to an unused tendon of 

 an animal. 



Some cultivators may consider it of little importance whether the tendrils are 

 pruned off or not. For my part, I prefer leaving them on the vine, because they 

 may in some degree render it support along with the foliage, through the 

 influence of the atmosphere. — J. Wighton, Cosset/ Parh. 



CONVERTIBLE VASE FOR FLOWERS OR FRUITS. 



JT must have often occurred to many besides myself, that if they could only 

 procure this or that flower, what a much prettier arrangement they could 

 have made. It must also have often occurred to many that, if the same 

 limited number and variety of flowers had only been arranged in this or 

 that form of vase, instead of the one they happen to be placed in, how much 

 better they would have looked. Some years ago I rarely saw a dinner-table deco- 

 rated, but what some new form or other suggested itself to me as an improvement 

 upon what was already in my collection ; and when time permitted the reduction' 

 of these ideas into the form of working drawings, an order to the zinc-worker or 

 glass-blower was the usual result. In this way I got together a great variety of 

 vases, dishes, stands, &c., and then found it best to wait until the flowers arrived, 

 before determining what vases should be used. Before my collection became so 

 varied, I used to get out a certain set of vases, as suitable for a table of a certain' 



