33° 



TlMEHRI. 



at once as a perfe6l melon plant in miniature, with the 

 characteristic rounded, more or less distinctly five-lobed 

 leaves, yellow flowers, and pendulous melons about half 

 an inch long, that would make a handsome dessert dish for 

 a fairy feast. This is the small wild melon (M elothria 

 pcndula) , whose fine tendrils seem specially suited for 

 twining on grass. Another small climbing plant, abun- 

 dant in the same places, is the heart-pea (Cardiospermum 

 microcarpum), which has leaves prettily cut into 

 three lobes, each again divided into three, very small 

 white flowers, and inflated capsules, each of 

 its three divisions containing a blue-black seed when 

 ripe; just below the flowers is a pair of opposite ten- 

 drils in short flattish coils something like a watch-spring. 

 The climbing securidaca, or purple climbing milkwort 

 (Sccuridaca voiubilisj, common in the avenue, with a 

 rich inflorescence of small winged pinkish-purple flowers 

 in loose clusters, climbs by taking a single turn at inter- 

 vals round its support with a tough twiggy loop or hook- 

 formed by part of the stem. Some tendrils are further 

 specialised for scrambling on rough surfaces as well as 

 twining. The common bignonia called bird's-foot or 

 catclaw, and sometimes Barbados trumpet-flower (Big- 

 nonia unguis), with large yellow tubular flowers and two 

 leaflets to each leaf, will be found to have three little 

 clawed processes to each tendril, which cling to rough 

 bark or to the back of the hand, when drawn across it, like 

 the claws of a tiny bird. 



In many climbing plants prickles or hooked thorns take 

 ihe place of tendrils. Some of the palms, which do not 

 c >me within the purview of this paper, are among the 

 be^t examples of this ; such as the Calamus longipes, in 



