354 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. 



first at the top of the piece which he wants, and not 

 at the bottom ; for so rapid is the ascent of the sap 

 that if he cut the stem below, the water would have 

 all fled upwards before he could cut it off above. 

 Meanwhile the old story of Jack and the Bean-stalk 

 comes into your mind." i Such a " bean-stalk " must 

 be that of Entada scandens, a tropical climber of the 

 bean family, which has pods nearly two yards long 

 and five inches broad, with beans as large as the flat- 

 tened " Normandy pippins," so often seen in the 

 grocers' windows. 



Rattans, which are the terror of schoolboys, are 

 also the dread of the traveller, but for different 

 reasons. These palms, often with stems not thicker 

 than the little finger, arc armed with rigid pointed 

 spines, climbing by their aid to the tops of the 

 highest trees, then dropping their extremities to the 

 ground, and rising again until they will attain a 

 length of several hundred feet. In the bulk of stem 

 they are diminutive, but in extension are worthy of 

 note as " giants." They are abundant in all the 

 forests of the Malay and Philippine archipelago, and 

 are everywhere extensively used as cordage, or for 

 the manufacture of basket work. " These singular 

 plants creep along the ground, or climb trees, and, 

 according to the species, to the length of from one 



* Kingsley's "At Last," p. 159. 



