v.] CLIMBING IN ABEYANCE 47 



Though ordinary climbing stems remain more 

 or less straight, if they fail to twine, mostly 

 lying on the ground ; yet many tendrils that 

 fail to catch any support, if they do not fall 

 off, subsequently coil up tightly as in the 

 Passion flower, showing that the coiling process 

 is hereditary without the stimulus of the object 

 to induce it to coil. 



The power of climbing may be in abeyance 

 and reappear subsequently. Thus dwarf French 

 beans may be sown in a row where one or 

 more may grow long and climb if supported. 

 A cultivated tree with a thick stem which I 

 observed in the Ezbekieh Gardens of Cairo, 

 called ^Hiptage mandablota of India, sends up 

 one or more long slender shoots which twine 

 around neighbouring bamboos to a height of 

 10 feet or so. It belongs to the family Mai- 

 pighiacece, one characterised by having many 

 climbing members ; but this species has become 

 a tree. Much more evidence could be given 

 but the above, I think, ought to be sufficient 

 to prove that the property of and structures 

 for climbing were all acquired by response to 

 the conditions of life till they became hereditary. 

 For further facts and details I would refer the 

 reader to my book. 1 



There is by no means an uncommon feature 

 in plants, which I do not remember alluded 



1 "The Origin of Plant Structures," chap, x., pp. 197 ff. 



