282 PLANT-LIFE 



when they come into touch with it. The Virginia Creeper 

 {Ampelofsis), so frequently grown to beautify bare walls, 

 has small pads at the ends of tendrils. These pads are 

 adhesive, and enable the plant to hold on to a surface 

 which it could not grip without their assistance. 



The Common Ivy (Hedera Helix) is classed as a root- 

 climber. In its efforts to reach light and air it produces 

 adventitious clasping rootlets from its branches, and 

 these are used by the plant in clinging to trees, walls, 

 or other supports. These rootlets are simple holdfasts, 

 making possible and successful the quest upon which 

 the Ivy is engaged. It proceeds " line upon line, and 

 precept upon precept," making sure of secure support 

 on every step of its lightward journey. These familiar 

 rootlets, then, are purely for climbing purposes. They 

 do not absorb nourishment, nor do they insert sap- 

 sucking processes into a supporting tree. It is common 

 among persons unversed in botany to call the Ivy a 

 parasite, but such it is not, although it may suffocate a 

 tree. Determined to thrive at all costs, it seeks a sup- 

 port. It has no compunction in making a tree into a 

 ladder, and if the tree be suffocated, what does the Ivy 

 care ! 



The gloom of the dense tropical forest has to be 

 experienced to be appreciated. The trees intercept 

 light, and cast the interior and the floor into deep 

 shade. There is little wonder that climbing plants, 

 particularly those with twisted woody stems, known as 

 " lianes," are common in these forests. These plants 

 sprawl over undergrowth until they reach trees, up 

 which they climb in their effort to reach the light. 

 Their twisted ropelike stems on the floor are a serious 



