v.] ORIGIN OF CLIMBERS 45 



other branches. This is the case in Chiococca 

 bracliiata,Buddkia brackiata, for some species of 

 Strychnos and Hippocratea. Next, as to climb- 

 ing stems. The nutation of the stem is now 

 an advantageous property. To this category 

 belong a great number of species of Apocynece, 

 Dittewacece, Boraginece, Dioscoreacece, Corn- 

 posit ce, Boussingaultia gracilis, Asclepiadacece, 

 Malpighiacece and Euphorbiacece." 1 



I would in passing invite the reader's special 

 attention to this passage as illustrating the 

 methods of true ecologists. It will be noticed 

 how the writer refers to a large number of 

 families of plants, not with any object of their 

 classification, as all older botanists would have 

 done, but solely for the sake of their physio- 

 logical peculiarities connected with habit of 

 growth and evolution. 



If the idea that the anomalous anatomical 

 structure of the stems of lianes, such as the 

 ribbon-like ones of Bauhinia, was congenital, 

 appearing first in seedlings among indefinite 

 variations, the fact has to be explained that 

 the wood of these stems, as stated, is not 

 anomalous for one, two, or more years, but quite 

 cylindrical, as in ordinary self-supporting stems ; 

 after having escaped the struggle for existence 

 during germination, then the anomaly puts in 

 its appearance. 



Experimental proofs of the acquisition of the 



1 Revue Generate de Botanique, torn. v, } p. 213. See also F. Mullet's 

 similar conclusions^ Journ. Liu. Soc. Hot., ix.j p. 445. 



