10 IN A GLOUCESTERSHIRE GARDEN 



know, there is no other plant that does the same. 

 Naturally all who have observed and written upon 

 the plant have noticed this habit, and there is little 

 doubt that the name of the plant was derived from 

 this coiling habit, though some writers (e.g. Cowley 

 and Miller) thought that the name came from its 

 round roots and leaves ; but the fact that Pliny gives 

 the name also to the honeysuckle, which has the 

 same habit of coiling its branches, is to me a suffi- 

 cient proof that this was the origin of the name. What 

 special benefit comes to the plant from this habit we 

 cannot say : it is easy to say that by it the seeds are 

 protected during the winter ; but that helps very 

 little. There are tens of thousands of plants whose 

 seeds are shed on the ground, and have to fight the 

 battle of life through the winter ; and why this par- 

 ticular protection should be given to the cyclamen 

 above other plants is a riddle as yet unanswered. 

 Darwin studied it, and could only say that it was a 

 successful effort of the plant to turn away from the 

 sun, for the protection of the seed, but could go no 

 further; so there we must leave it. But it is worth 

 notice that the same coiling occurs generally in 

 the Persian cyclamen, but in another part of the 

 plant (besides the coiling of the flower-stem), for in 

 that species it is a very common (if not universal) 



