^ APPENDAGES TO PLANTS, 



in nature. A more rational opinion is given by another botanist, 

 viz.— that thorns are in reality bulbs, which a more favourable situa' 

 tion converts into luxuriant branches. But in manj'- cases, they ao 

 not disappear even under circumstances the most favourable to vc 

 getation. Thorns have been compared to the horns of animals. 



4th. Glands are roundish, minute appendages, sometimes called 

 tumours or sweUings ; they contain a liquid secretion which is sup- 

 posed to give to many plants their fragrance. They are sometimes 

 attached to the base of the leaf, sometimes they occur in the sub- 

 stance of leaves ; as in the lemon and myrtle, causing them to ap- 

 pear dotted when held to the hght. They are found on the petioles 

 of the passion-flower, and between the teeth and divisions of the 

 leaves of many plants. 



5thi Stings are hair-like substances, causing pain by an acrid li- 

 quor, which is discharged upon their being compressed ; they are 

 hollow, slender, and pointed, as in the nettle. 



6th. Scales are substances, in some respect resembling the coarse 

 scales of a fish ; they are often green, sometimes coloured, and are 

 found upon all parts of vegetables, as upon the roots of bulbous 

 plants, and upon the stems and branches of other plants. They are 

 imbricattd upon the calyxes of most of the compound flowers. You 

 have seen in buds, how important the scales are, in protecting the 

 embryo plant during the winter. Scale-like calyxes surround the 

 flowers of grasses, under the name of glumes. Scales envelop and 

 sustain the stamens and fruit of the pine, oak, chestnut, &.c. 



Fig. 65. '''th- Tendrils, or claspers, are thread-like ap- 



pendages, by which weak stems attach themselves 

 to other bodies for support; they usually rise from 

 the branches, in some cases from the leaf, and 

 rarely from the leaf-stalk or flower-stalk. You have 

 here the representation of a tendril; Tendrils are 

 very important and characteristic appendages to 

 many plants. In the trumpet-flower and ivy, the 

 tendrils serve for roots, planting themselves into 

 the bark of trees, or in the walls of buildings. In 

 the cucumber and some other plants, tendrils serve 

 both for sustenance and shade. Many of the papi- 

 lionaceous, or pea-blossom plants, have twining 

 tendrils, which wind to the right, and back again. 

 Among vegetables which have tendrils, has been 

 discovered that property, which some have called, 

 the instinctive intelUgence of plants. A poetical 

 botanist represents the tendrils of the gourd and 

 cucumber, as, " creeping away in disgust from the 

 fatty fibres of the neighbouring olive." The man- 

 ner in which tendrils stretch themselves forward to 

 grasp some substances, while they shrink from 

 others, is indeed astonishing ; but instead of ima- 

 gining that they have a preference for some, and a 

 dislike for other objects, it is more philosophical to 

 conclude that these eli'ects arise from physical 

 causes, which do not the less exist because we can 

 not discover them. It has been ascertained by experiments, that the 

 tendrils of the vine, and some other plants, recede from the light, 

 and seek opaque bodies. The fact with respect to leaves is directly 

 the reverse of this, for they turn themselves round to seek the light 



Glands— Stinffs— Scales— Tendrils— Recede from the light. 



