116 TALKS AFIELD. 



almost immediately snapped during a gale. 

 Darwin used to go during gales to a hedge 

 where the bryony, a nearly related plant, 

 grew in abundance to watch the behavior of 

 the tendrils. He says that the plant always 

 " safely rode out the gale like a ship with 

 two anchors down, and with a long range 

 of cable ahead to serve as a spring as she 

 surges to the storm." 



If a tendril which has come in contact 

 with a support and has wound half way 

 around it be examined again in a day or 

 two, it will be found to have coiled two or 

 three times around the support, although it 

 may not have increased in length. From a 

 number of experiments Darwin concluded 

 that the tendril actually crawls around the 

 stick by an undulatory, worm-like motion. 

 If a tendril is not fortunate enough to find 

 a support it remains straight for several 

 days, as if in wait ; but finally it drops down 

 and coils up in one continuous direction, 

 and is thereafter useless. The coil of ten- 

 drils about a support, unlike that of the 

 stems of twiners, is not necessarily in the 

 direction of the free revolution. 



The tendril of the pea is the transformed 

 extremity of a compound leaf, each branch 



