290 THE NATUEAL HISTOEY REVIEW. 



ex^Dected tHat they would present some differences of function, but 

 this is not the case ; on the contrary, they present the most perfect 

 identity in their several characteristics. . The most interesting point 

 in the natural history of climbing plants is their diverse powders of 

 movement. The most different organs — stem, flower-peduncle, 

 petiole, midribs of the leaf or leaflets, and apparently aerial roots, 

 all possess these powers. Climbing plants, continued the author, 

 are so numerous as to form a conspicuous section of the vegetable 

 kingdom. They belong to many and widely-different orders. To 

 gain some crude idea of their distribution in the vegetable series, I 

 marked all the famihes in Lindley's " Vegetable Kingdom," which 

 include plants in any of the sub-divisions of twiners, leaf-climbers, 

 and tendril-bearers ; and those (some at least in each group) all 

 proved to have the power of spontaneously revolving. Lindley 

 divides phanerogamic plants into 59 alliances, and of these 36 

 (above half) include climbing plants — hook and root-climbers being 

 excluded. To these a few Crypt ogamic plants must be added which 

 climb by revolving. When we reflect on the wide serial distribution 

 of plants having this power, and when we know that in some of the 

 largest well-defined orders, such as the CompositsB, Eubiaceae, 

 Scrophulariacese, Liliacese, &c., two or three genera alone out of the 

 host of genera in each, have this power, the conclusion is forced on 

 us that the capacity of acquiring the revol\dng powder on which most 

 climbers depend, is inherent, though undeveloped, in almost every 

 plant in the vegetable kingdom. The author thus concluded his 

 remarks : — The perfection of the organisation of plants is forced on 

 our minds by the study of the many kinds that chmb. Let us look 

 at one of the more highly organised tendril-bearing climbers. It 

 first places its tendrils ready for action as a polype places its tenta- 

 cula. If the tendrd be displaced, it is acted on by the force of 

 gravity and rights itself. It is acted on by the light, and bends to- 

 wards or from it, or disregards it, whichever may be most advan- 

 tageous. During several days the tendril or internodes, or both, 

 spontaneously involve with a steady motion. The tendril strikes 

 some object, and quickly curls round and firmly grasps it. In the 

 course of some hours it contracts itself into a spire, dnigging up the 

 stem, and forming an excellent spring. All movements now cease. 

 By growth the tissues soon become wonderfully strong and durable. 

 The tendril has now done its work, and done it in an admirable 

 manner. 



