CHAPTER XVL 



CLIMBING PLANTS AND PLANT MIGRATIONS. 



It is interesting to notice along waysides and waterways how 

 different varieties of plants dwell in congenial plant societies. 

 Many a delicate plant owes its start in life to the protecting 

 branches of some overhanging shrub or forest tree which it 

 afterwards uses to " rise in the world ". 



We could not make a satisfactory classification of climbing 

 plants, because almost any family of plants might have climb- 

 ing members if their surroundings were such as to induce 

 climbing or made the habit an advantage. In fact, a plant 

 which may have quite an erect habit out in the open will 

 become tall and slender and in need of support if growing 

 among bushes. 



Stem Twiners. — Mkroloma and Cyphia show a common 

 method of climbing by twining. The stems twine from left 

 to right, or counter clock-wise.^ Growing on the open veld 

 as they do, their support is seldom long enough for their 

 entire length, but the stems often twine several together in 

 a strand firm enough to bear their weight of pretty blossoms 

 up into the sunlight. You may watch them in the school- 

 room, if you place them in water, and see how at different 

 hours of the day the stems point in different directions The 

 tips of the stems make wide sweeps, but as they extend in length 

 the coil tightens around the support. One keen-eyed student 

 says she can tell from what hillside Mkroloma has been gathered 

 by the plant it entwines. On one hillside she seeks it on 

 RestiacecE ; in another locality it twines about the rigid branches 

 of Montinia acris ; while elsewhere it mingles its scarlet waxy 

 flowers with the hoary heads of Eriocephalus. 



1 With the sun in the southern hemisphere. 

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