THE CREEPING PALM 209 



by them. A case in point may be cited. A dog retrieving 

 a scrub fowl, which had fallen in the vicinity of an " Ahm- 

 moo" tree, emerged with it entirely enveloped with the 

 seeds and adhering rubbish, and itself almost helpless from 

 a similar cause. In this happy chance the seeds were eventu- 

 ally widely distributed. If the glutin is provided to prevent 

 birds consuming the kernels, then the object is perfectly 

 served ; otherwise no very satisfactory reason is apparent 

 why the tree should be invested with the means of destroy- 

 ing even humble forms of life. Is this one of the "lost 

 chords " in the harmony of nature ? 



The Creeping Palm 



Perhaps the most impressive feature of the jungle — that 

 which takes fast hold, clings most tenaciously, and leaves 

 the most irritating remembrances — is what is known as the 

 lawyer cane or vine {Calamus). It is a vegetable of tortuous 

 ambitions, that defies you, that embarrasses with attention, 

 arrests your progress, occasionally envelops you in a net- 

 work of bewildering, slender, and cruelly-armed tentacles, 

 that everywhere bristles with points, that curves back on 

 itself, and makes loops and wriggles ; that springs from a 

 thin, sprawling and helpless beginning, and develops into 

 almost miraculous lengths, and ramifies and twists and 

 turns in " verdurous glooms," ascends and descends, grovels 

 in the moist earth and among mouldy leaves, clasps with 

 aerial rootlets every possible support, and eventually 

 clambers and climbs above the tallest tree, twirling its 

 armed tentacles round airy nothings. It blossoms incon- 

 spicuously, and its fruit is as hard, tough and dry as an 

 argument on torts. Ordinary mortals call it a vine. Botanists 

 describe it as a prickly climbing palm, and no jungle is 

 complete without it. There are several varieties of this 

 interesting plant, all more or less of a grasping, clinging 

 character, and each of vital importance in the republic of 



vegetation. ■ 

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