38 



HOW PLANTS GEOW. 



branch, but taper off into a thorn. Prickles, such as those on the stems of Eoses 

 and Brambles, must not be confounded with thorns. These are growths from the 

 bark (hke hairs or bristles, only stouter), and peel off with it ; while thorns are 

 connected with the wood. 



95. Tendrils, such as those of the Grape-Vine, Virginia Creeper (Fig. 72), and 

 the Melon or Squash, are very slender, leafless branches, used to enable certain 



plants to climb. 

 They grow out 

 straight or nearly 

 so until they reach 

 some neighboring 

 support, such as a 

 stem, when the end 

 hooks around it 

 to secure a hold, 

 and the whole ten- 

 dril then shortens 

 itself by coiling up 

 spirally, so draw- 

 ing the growing 



Tendrils of Tirsiiiia Creeper. shoOt liearCr tO thc 



supporting object. When the Virginia Creeper climbs the side of a building, 

 the face of a rock, or the smooth bark of a tree, which the tendrils cannot lay 

 hold of in the usual way, their tips expand into a flat plate (as shown in Fig. 73, 

 the ends of a tendril magnified), which adheres very firmly to the surface. This 

 enables the plant to climb up a smooth surface by tendrils, just as the Ivy and 

 Trumpet-Creeper climb by rootlets (86). 



96. Peduncles or Flower-stalks are a kind of branches, or stems, as is clear from 

 their situation. They are either a continuation of the stem, as in the Lily of the 

 Valley and the Chalccdonian Lily, represented on the first page ; or else they rise 

 out of the axil of a leaf, as in the Morning-Glory (Pig. 4). Plainly, whatever 

 comes from the axil of a leaf mlist be of the nature of a branch. So 



97. Buds, that is axillary^buds, are undeveloped branches, as already explained 

 in paragraphs 55 to 58. 



98. The following kinds of branches are all connected with the ground in some 

 way, and most of them act in such a way as to make new plants. 



