674 CLIMBING PLANTS. 



do not bend over the supporting branches, but, having once attained a certain 

 height, develop stiff lateral branches, projecting like spars, and long-stalked leaves 

 which push their way between the stiff, dry branches of the supporting bushes ; 

 in this way the whole shoot is held fast so that it cannot be displaced. When this 

 same Crane's-bill grows in a meadow between low herbs which can afford it no 

 support, the stem bends and the whole shoot lies with its lower internodes on the 

 ground. The ends of the internodes are thickened, and a turgescent cell-tissue is 

 formed at these places by means of which the younger parts of the shoot are 

 brought again into an erect position, appearing at right angles to the older inter- 

 nodes lying on the ground. The advantage obtained by this arrangement, is that 

 plants of Crane's-bill thus extended over the ground are able, should they encounter 

 a firm shrubby undergrowth not too far removed from the place where they are 

 rooted, to use it as a support and to weave themselves over it. As a matter of 

 fact, plants of Geranium palustre are often seen with their lowest internodes lying 

 on the ground, while the upper internodes as well as numerous lateral branches are 

 interwoven into some bush growing in the meadow near by, and their red flowers 

 are displayed more than a metre high above the soil from between the branches of 

 the bush serving as a support. Several other species of crane's-bill resemble this 

 one in habit (e.g. Geranium nodosum, divaricatum, &c.), also several species of 

 bedstraw and woodruff (e.g. Galium mollugo, Asperula aparine), the berry-forming 

 Cucubalus (Cucubalus baccifer), and, finally, the remarkable Marsh Speedwell 

 (Veronica scutellata). Here, too, belong several species of asparagus with pro- 

 jecting, spar-like branches and filamentous or needle-shaped phylloclades. The 

 annual shoots of these asparaguses attain an astonishing length and push their way 

 into the forkings of the boughs of erect-growing stems. In this respect the Aspa- 

 ragus acutifolius, very common in the region of the Mediterranean flora, is parti- 

 cularly worth mentioning, and also the Asparagus verticillatus growing in Asia 

 Minor, the stems of which not infrequently attain a length of 3 metres, climbing 

 up to the crowns of the lower oaks and there interweaving their horizontally 

 disposed branches with the boughs. 



The third group of plants with weaving-stems includes the rotangs, those pecu- 

 liar palms celebrated for the fabulous length of their almost uniformly thickened 

 stems. A species of rotang, drawn from nature in Java by Selleny, is given on 

 the opposite page. The stem of all young rotang plants is erect, and the yet 

 folded leaves grow vertically upwards in the same direction as the young axis. 

 Later, when the leaves unfold and expand, they arch outwards and spread them- 

 selves over the confused mass of other growths, amongst which the rotang plant 

 has germinated and grown up. If the vegetation in the immediate neighbourhood 

 consists only of low herbs and bushes, the elongating rotang stem does not find a 

 support sufficient to enable it to grow up in the original vertical direction. So it 

 trails on the ground like a runner, often forming snake-like coils, as shown in 

 fig. 156; still always bending up at the free end, and continually pushing up new 

 leaves. If the rotang plant has developed amongst tall shrubs and trees, or if after 



