CESALPINI 39 



weak plants, unable to support their own weight, may- 

 clasp other plants with their tendrils, and shows that a 

 tendril may spring from the axil of a leaf, or in the 

 place of a leaf, or from the apex of a leaf. He names 

 clematis as an example of a plant which climbs with 

 the help of its leaf-stalks, ivy as one which climbs by 

 what he calls " hooks," arranged along the stem like the 

 feet of a centipede ; others are said to twine like snakes. 

 He remarks that climbing plants appear to have some 

 power of perception, for they feel about for a suitable 

 support, and grasp it when found (Chap. xi). We find 

 also a good account of the way in which wood-sorrel 

 throws out its seeds, of the creeping stem, flowers and 

 fruit of the white and yellow water-lilies, &c. These 

 plants, or most of them, had been carefully studied 

 before Cesalpini by Bock, Fuchs and L'Obel, sometimes 

 by Theophrastus as well. 



Cesalpini's account of the seed and seedling is memor- 

 able because he clearly states that in many plants there 

 are two seed-leaves, while in the wheat-grain there is 

 only one. He is further aware that the seed-leaves may 

 contain a store of food, and that in leguminous plants 

 they may never leave the seed.-^ 



^ The passages of the De Plantis which treat of the flower and the cotyledons 

 were attentively studied by Linnaeus, whose annotations can still be read in 

 the library of the Linnean Society. 



