36 TWINING PLANTS. Chap. I 



laterally from one to the other pot ; but as the 

 plants grew older, some of the shoots twined regu- 

 larly up thin upright sticks. Though the revolving 

 movement was sometimes in one direction and some- 

 times in the other, the twining was invariably from 

 left to right ;* so that the more potent or persistent 

 movement of revolution must have been in opposition 

 to the course of the sun. It would appear that this 

 Hibbertia is adapted both to ascend by twining, and to 

 ramble laterally through the thick Australian scrub. 



I have described the above case in some detail, 

 because, as far as I have seen, it is rare to find any 

 special adaptations with twining plants, in which 

 respect they differ much from the more highly organ- 

 ized tendril-bearers. The Solanum dulcamara, as we 

 shall presently see, can twine only round stems which 

 are both thin and flexible. Most twining plants are 

 adapted to ascend supports of moderate though of 

 different thicknesses. Our English twiners, as far as 

 I have seen, never twine round trees, excepting the 

 honeysuckle (Lonicera periclymenum), which I have 

 observed twining up a young beech-tree nearly 4J 

 inches in diameter. Mohl (p. 134) found that the 

 Phaseolus muUiflorus and Ipomoea purjpurea could not. 



* In another genus, namely left ; and I once saw a shoot which 



Davilla, belonging to the same ascended a tiee about fire inches 



family with Hibbertia, Fritz in diameter, reverse its course in 



Hiiller says (ibid. p. 349) that the same manner as so frequently . 



" the stem twines IndifTerently occurs with Loasa." 

 from left to right, or from right to 



