86 THE HUMAN SIDE OF PLANTS 



and when he wakes he pushes his way through the 

 door and sails out into the world, a tiny grey moth. 



There is one form of athletics in which the gym- 

 nast or "outdoor man" of to-day does not indulge 

 to a great extent, although for his general develop- 

 ment the pursuit of this kind of exercise with more 

 avidity would be beneficial. This is climbing. If 

 we are to accept the theories of Darwin, we must 

 believe that climbing was more than a popular 

 sport for our ancestors; and certainly the instinc- 

 tive inclination of children toward this effort would 

 seem to point to some inherited suggestion or lean- 

 ing in the direction of this form of exercise. 



In plant life we find instances of climbers so 

 numerous as to indicate the most popular of all the 

 forms of athletics pursued by the plants. How- 

 ever, there are radical differences in the methods 

 of climbing followed by different plants. The 

 Virginia creeper, for instance, forms little sticky 

 feet at the ends of its tendrils; and in climbing, all 

 the tendrils, sensitive to the light and darkness, seek 

 out the dark nooks and crevices in preference to 

 the light places, and, clinging there, enable the 

 plant to mount to the top of the support. The 

 bryony, on the contrary, catches at anything that 

 will afford a means of tenability, preferring the 

 light to the darkness, and therefore tending toward 



