APPENDAGES TO PLANTS. 



87 



Fig. 45. 



7th. Tendrils, or claspers, thread-like, or 

 filiform appendages, by which weak stem* 

 attach themselves to other bodies for sup- 

 port ; they usually rise from the branches, 

 in some cases from the leaf, and rarely 

 from the leaf stalk or flower stalk. You 

 have here the representation (Fig. 45) of 

 a tendril. Tendrils are very important, 

 and characteristic appendages to many 

 plants. In the trumpet flower and ivy, the 

 tendrils serve for roots, planting themselves 

 into the bark of trees, or in the walls of 

 buildings. In the cucumber and some other 

 plants, tendrils serve both for sustenance 

 and shade. Many of the papilionaceous, 

 or pea blossom plants, have twining ten- 

 drils, which wind to the right and back 

 again. Among vegetables which have ten- 

 drils, has been discovered that property, 

 which some^have called the instinctive in- 

 telligence *of plants. A poetical botanist 

 represents the tendrils of the gourd and 

 cucumber, as " creeping away in disgust from the fatty fibres 

 of the neighbouring olive." The manner in which tendrils 

 stretch themselves forward to grasp some substances, while 

 they shrink from others, is mcTeed astonishing, but instead of 

 imagining that they have a preference for some and a dislike 

 for other objects, it is much more philosophical to conclude 

 that these effects arise from physical causes, which may, here- 

 after, be discovered. It has been ascertained by experiments, 

 that the tendrils of the vine, and some other plants, recede from 

 the light, and seek opaque bodies. The fact with respect to 

 leaves is directly the reverse of this, for they turn themselves 

 round to seek the light.. 



Some plants creep by their tendrils to a very great height, 

 even to the tops of the loftiest trees ; and seem to cease as- 

 cending only because they can find nothing higher to climb. 

 One of our most beautiful climbing plants is the CLEMATIS vif- 

 ginica, or virgin's bower, which has flowers of a brilliant 

 whiteness. 



8th. Pubescence includes all down, hairs, woolliness, or silk- 

 mess of plants. The pubescence of plants varies in different 

 soils, and with different modes of cultivation. The species in 

 some genera of plants are distinguished by the direction of the 



Tendrils Recede from the light Pubescence. 



