86 



DICOTYLEDONS 



flowers. The plant is sickly for want of the necessary light. 

 A dense forest produces the same effect. There is so much 

 shade that hardly any herb can grow in it. How many plants 

 die there for want of light! How many seeds fall there to the 

 ground and germinate, but cannot grow further, perishing 

 miserably in the dark thicket! 



The seed of a liana has to germinate 

 under such disadvantages and would cer- 

 tainly suffer the same miserable death, if 

 it were not provided with certain qualities 

 that other plants lack. Above all, the 

 liana is distinguished by an unusually 

 quick growth, by which it brings its foliage 

 to the top of trees in a very short time. 

 The darkness and the damp air in the 

 jungle are advantageous to quick growth. 

 It is as if the plant in its youth had no 

 other aim than this, and as if everything 

 else about its growth was subservient to 

 this one end: it does not form many leaves; 

 it does not produce branches; the stem 

 does not grow in width; it only grows in 

 length. The stem thus becomes so slender 

 and weak that it cannot stand upright by 

 itself. What may now be its fateV Shall 

 it yet die in the struggle for existence? 



It Avould certainly die, if it had not the 

 wonderful ability to use as its support the 

 very giant tree in its vicinity which threat- 

 ened to be the cause of its death and to 

 clioke it. The Elephant Climber climbs 

 the tree by winding roun<l it. The leatless 

 tip of the slender stem moves spirally until 

 it finds something to grasp, round which 

 it then winds in the direction opposite to 

 that in which the hands of a clock move. If the stem cannot 

 find any support, it sinks down to the ground, striking new roots 



Fig. 84.— Tlie "fore- 

 running tij)" of Argyrcia. 



