158 CHAPTER XXL 



have found it growing, covered with its yellow flowers, 

 among brambles in the Var and in the Magnan valley. 



The Vine, the Gourd, the Passion-flower, the 

 Pea, and other plants have tendrils ; the Virginian 

 Vine (Ampelopsis) holds by suckers, the Ivy by 

 adventitious rootlets ; Convolvulus and Honeysuckle 

 are stem climbers, they twine round their support. 

 The Rose and the Bramble (Rubus) are provided 

 with recurved prickles, which make it impossible 

 for the trailing branch to slip downwards ; but, if you 

 cut the sarment through below, you may easily pull 

 it upwards and so disengage it, for the prickles will 

 offer no resistance when the direction is reversed. 



The hedge Galium is furnished with little hooks : 

 Smilax has both tendrils and recurved prickles. But 

 the Climbing Solanum (S. jasminoides) has neither 

 hooks nor tendrils, nor any of the arrangements 

 which I have enumerated. It holds by the petiole 

 just like a Clematis. The leaf-stalk plays the part 

 of a tendril, and when it has laid hold of some object 

 it becomes much thicker and more rigid. 



The Leguminosre are represented by the mag- 

 nificent Wistaria (French Glycine), and the Kennedia. 

 The former does not fruit on the Riviera ; it has the 

 disadvantage of being deciduous. The Scarlet 

 Runner (Pliaseolus) is even more useful than orna- 

 mental, as it forms a staple article of diet in France. 

 Some species of Thunbergia are " sensibles au froid," 

 but T. corcinea is considered by the gardeners to be 

 " tres rustique." Trained over an archway these 

 climbers have a particularly good effect, for the 

 bunches of flowers hang down and form a decorative 

 fringe. 



