3^8 TlMEHRI. 



The twining seaside peas and clitorias may naturally 

 suggest the question, how do plants climb? The answers 

 to which are full of variety and interest, only to be briefly 

 touched on here. Every plant mentioned may be found 

 in the avenue at the Gardens, where the study of tro- 

 pical botany may be carried on under much more agree- 

 able conditions than are often imposed upon its votaries. 

 But it must be remembered that many of the ornamental 

 flowers there are introduced species, and therefore not 

 mentioned here unless they are thoroughly naturalised. 

 I once heard a well-known old planter stoutly maintain 

 a pet theory of his, that plants had some sixth sense 

 unknown to us, even if they could not actually see what 

 they were about by some strange vegetable form of 

 vision. "For," said he, "just plant a yam anywhere, 

 and three or four feet away put in a likely stick ; and in 

 a few days you will find that that yam has made a bee- 

 line for the stick and climbed up it. How could it do 

 that without sense ?" The facts are indisputable ; and 

 if the solution is not so paradoxical as the argument 

 infers, it is no less wonderful as a simple yet perfe6t 

 adaptation to a given end. In twining plants the powers 

 of movement, common to all plants in a greater or less 

 degree, are so specialised in the long growing shoots 

 that each sweeps round a considerable portion of a 

 circle in a few hours' time. Over grass or slight 

 obstacles they pass unchecked, but as soon as they reach a 

 branch or sapling strong enough to interrupt their course, 

 and therefore adequate as a support, they twine round it 

 by the same sort of impulse, gradually and persistently 

 given by the growth of the plant, that makes a whip- 

 lash twist spirally round any like obstacle. Thus they 



