TENDRIL - CLIMBEES 



1(1!) 



seek the dark places and therefore enter the chinks in 

 walls and bark. Fig. 12. the trumpet creeper, is a fa- 

 miliar example. The true or English ivy. which is often 

 grown to cover buildings, is another instance (Fig. 162). 

 Still another is the poison ivy. Roots are distinguished 

 from stein tendrils by their irregular or indefinite posi- 

 tion as well as by their mode of growth. 



225. TENDRIL-CLIMBERS. A slender coiling pari which 

 serves to hold a climbing plant to a support is known as a 



l>'>:s. Tendril of Virginia creeper. The direction of il"- <-"il changes near the middle. 



tendril. The free end swings or curves until il strikes 

 some object, when it attaches itself and then coils and 

 draws fin plant closi to /In support. The spring of the coil 

 also allows the planl to movi hi /In trim/, therebj enabling 

 the planl to maintain its hold Slowly pull a well-ma- 

 tured tendril from its support, and note how stronglj it 

 holds on. Watch the tendrils in a storm. To tesl the 

 movement of a free tendril, draw an ink line lengthwise 

 of it. and note that tin- line is now on the concave side 



and now on the convex side. Of course this movement is 

 slow, luii it i- often evidenl in an hour or so. I suallj 

 the tendril attaches to the support bj coiling about it, bul 

 the Virginia creeper ami Boston ivj attach to walls bj 

 means of disks on the ends of the tendrils. 



l''_m>. Since both ends of the tendril are fixed, when it 



