Cuar, IV. VITACEA, 141 
eleven flower-buds, quickly became curved when 
slightly rubbed; but even this scanty number of 
flowers rendered the stalk less sensitive than the 
other branch, that is, the flower-tendril ; for the latter 
after a lighter rub became curved more quickly and 
in a greater degree. I have seen a sub-peduncle 
thickly covered with flower-buds, with one of its 
higher lateral branchlets bearing from some cause 
only two buds; and this one branchlet had become 
much elongated and had spontaneously caught hold 
of an adjoining twig; in fact, it formed a little sub- 
tendril. The increasing length of the sub-peduncle 
(C) with the decreasing number of the flower-buds is a 
good instance of the law of compensation. In accord- 
ance with this same principle, the true tendril as a whole 
is always longer than the flower-stalk; for instance, 
on the same plant, the longest flower-stalk (measured 
from the base of the common peduncle to the tip of 
the flower-tendril) was 84 inches in length, whilst the 
longest tendril was nearly double this length, namely 
16 inches. 
The gradations from the ordinary state of a flower- 
stalk, as represented in the drawing (fig. 10), to 
that of a true tendril (fig. 9) are complete. We have 
seen that the sub-peduncle (C), whilst still bearing 
from thirty to forty flower-buds, sometimes becomes a 
little elongated and partially assumes all the characters 
of the corresponding branch of a true tendril. From 
this state we can trace every stage till we come to 
a full-sized perfect tendril, bearing on the branch 
