34 TWINING PLANTS. Cuap. I. 
scandens twines, as I have described, from left to right, 
another species in South Brazil twines in an opposite 
direction. It would have been an anomalous circum- 
stance if no such cases had occurred, for different 
individuals of the same species, namely, of Solanwm 
duleamara (Dutrochet, tom. xix. p. 299), revolve and 
twine in two directions: this plant, however, is a most 
feeble twiner. Loasa aurantiaca (Léon, p. 851) offers 
a much more curious case: I raised seventeen plants: 
of these eight revolved in opposition to the sun and 
ascended from left to right; five followed the sun and 
ascended from right to left; and four revolved and 
twined first in one direction, and then reversed their 
course,* the petioles of the opposite leaves affording a 
point @appui for the reversal of the spire. One of 
these four plants made seven spiral turns from right 
to left, and five turns from left to right. Another 
plant in the same faimily, the Scyphanthus elegans, 
habitually twines in this same manner. I raised 
many plants of it, and the stems of all took one 
turn, or occasionally two or even three turns in 
one direction, and then, ascending for a short space 
straight, reversed their course and took one or two 
turns in an opposite direction. The reversal of 
the curvature occurred at any point in the stem, 
even in the middle of an internode. Had I not 
seen this case, I should have thought its occurrence 
* I raised nine plants of the of these also reversed their spire 
hybrid Loasa Herbertii, and six in ascending a support. 
