234 LIFE AND SPORT IN HAMPSHIRE 



understanding of many green things, this really is at 

 times an idea we can play with quite seriously. It 

 may appeal to us when we see the red bryony stretch- 

 ing forth its tentacles in the hedgerow. This red 

 bryony belongs to an order of plants different alto- 

 gether from the black bryony. It is a gourd, cousin 

 to melon or marrow, which it reminds us of in several 

 ways, such as shape of leaves, which have an orna- 

 mental outline, of the kind the chisel of the sculptor 

 might cut. 



The look of physical intelligence in red bryony is in 

 the feeler or tentacle, six inches or so long, pointed 

 and slightly bent round at the tip. This, stretched 

 out in the air for some days perhaps, in the end grasps 

 and winds around leaf, stem, flower, or tentacle of some 

 neighbour; and once it has fastened, an odd thing 

 happens : commonly, at about its middle, the feeler 

 twists like a little spiral spring, an inch or two of 

 twist. This, by shortening the feeler, may strengthen 

 the bryony's hold. It draws itself nearer to the object 

 grasped, or draws the object grasped nearer to itself 

 according to whether the bryony has the greater pull- 

 ing or the object seized the greater resisting strength. 

 The tip of the bryony feeler gradually closes tighter 

 on the object seized and casts round it two or three 

 neat, tiny coils, like those of a rope coiled on deck by 

 a sailor's hand. The feelers are not very tough, and 

 have none of the woody strength and hardness of the 

 winding stem of black bryony, but they fix the climb- 



