164 LIFE AND WORK OF SIR JAGADIS C. BOSE 



the sun. And there are many means besides that of 

 individual strengthening of stem to attain stature. Weak 

 stems, like those of roses on the lower levels, or of lofty 

 climbers, may scramble up by help of hooking prickles upon 

 the solid stem-plants, and so get the better of them. Others 

 again climb in gentler though not less efficient ways, like many 

 tendril-bearers, e.g. peas and vines. Yet others swing their 

 slender growing shoots, and so become twiners, like the convol- 

 vulus, the hop, and many more among herbs. Many have 

 shrubby, tough and rope-like stems like clematises, or even 

 attain the fullest loftiness, like the lianas, which often grow 

 to almost tree-like stems, twisted constrictor-fashion round 

 their victims. Some again can climb on rocks and walls, 

 like Ivy with its adhesive stem-roots, or like Ampelopsis 

 with its tendrils cementing their tips to their supports. 



Yet even of life-sustaining light, plants may have 

 more than they can bear, especially when water, their 

 other necessity, is scanty. Hence we note plants which 

 turn their edges to the light, like many peas to some extent, 

 and some eucalyptuses much more ; and others yet more 

 completely, like the famous Compass-plant of America. 

 And though the palms and bananas bear their immense 

 leaves in full sunshine, even these are not without some 

 moderative adaptations ; while many plants have reduced 

 the ordinary size of leafage of their family, sometimes even 

 to the leaf-stalks, or to the stipules, parts which every one 

 may have noticed at the base of the rose-leaf. Thus the 

 acacias of desert regions, as notably in great tracts in 

 inland Australia, may lose the beautiful bipinnate leaves 

 so characteristic of their genus, sometimes indeed only 

 producing one or two in the seedling, and henceforward 

 have but leaf-stalks, flattened out in somewhat leaf-like 

 fashion, yet now vertically instead of horizontally so as to 

 catch less light, and also of tough and leathery character, 

 so as to reduce the transpiration of water. Extreme cases 

 are found in the Cactus and the Euphorbia families ; for 

 here the leaves may vanish early, or even be represented by 



