198 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. 



there might be no mistake in our interpretation 

 of these facts, we requested Mr. W. S. Gilburt, 

 who has devoted himself successfully to the study 

 of the minute anatomy of plants, 'to examine and 

 favour us with his opinion. Undoubtedly, he says, 

 the entire structure of the leaf is reversed in order 

 to fulfil the conditions of its reversed position. 1 This 

 seems to us quite an unique illustration of accommo- 

 dation to circumstances. It still remains to us a 

 puzzle why the leaves should thus reverse themselves.. 

 The plants were growing so that the leaves were 

 constantly in contact with small objects, and if the 

 twisting of the petiole was occasioned by effort at 

 clasping, it must have exhibited some evidence, but 

 not a single petiole had embraced anything, and all 

 the leaves had turned over, topside under. 



The second class of climbing plants perform this 

 act by means of the ordinary foliaceous organs, or 

 by supplementary ones, which are often modifications 

 of leaves. Those which climb by means of their 

 leaves may do this by embracing the support with 

 the footstalk, or by elongations of the midrib. The 

 most familiar of leaf climbers is the traveller's joy> 

 or clematis, which belongs to a genus including many 

 climbers, such as the splendid large-flowered kinds 



1 We are in anticipation that Mr. Gilburt will soon publish, 

 the details of his examination of this strange phenomenon. 



