i84 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. 



CHAPTER IX. 



TWINERS AND CLIMBERS. 



Whoever has read the records of travellers in- 

 tropical forests will have been struck with the 

 constant recurrence of some reference to climbing 

 plants, even should they fail to remark the general 

 allusion to climbers and twiners as important features 

 in tropical vegetation. We take up the first book at 

 hand, and in it we read, as follows : — " Below, the 

 tree trunks were everywhere linked together by 

 sipos ; the woody, flexible stems of climbing and 

 creeping trees, whose foliage is far away above, 

 mingled with that of the taller independent trees. 

 Some were twisted in strands like cables ; others had 

 thick stems contorted in every variety of shape, 

 entwining snake-like round the tree -trunks, or 

 forming gigantic loops and coils among the larger 

 branches ; others again, were of zigzag shape, or 

 indented, like the steps of a staircase, sweeping 

 from the ground to a giddy height. It interested 

 me much afterwards to find that these climbing trees 

 do not form any particular family. There is no dis- 

 tinct group of plants whose especial habit is to cHmb^ 



