TENDRILS 187 



other in that, so students of vegetable anatomy 

 or morphology soon discover. 



It is soon perfectly plain that the stem is a 

 modified root. For instance, plants have been 

 taken up from the sod and replaced in the ground 

 upsidedown, the roots subsequently becoming 

 stems, and bearing leaves, and the buried leafy 

 stems assuming the functions of roots. Leaves 

 are mere modified branches, and the flowers modi- 

 fied leaves. Pistils and stamens in flowers are 

 modified petals, or rather petals are modified sta- 

 mens, the " doubling " of flowers representing the 

 being thus accomplished, while the petals again 

 are mere changed leaves. A neighbor of mine 

 has a bush bearing green roses — all leaves. In 

 the water-lily you will find it difficult to determine 

 just where the stamen ends and the petals begin, 

 so gradual is the blending. In the peony the 

 same is true, and carried still further in the merg- 

 ing of petals and calyx into the approximate 

 leaves. 



And so it is with tendrils. In certain plants 

 the point of the leaf, through ages of " natural 

 selection," has gradually been prolonged into a 

 slender arm, which clasps the branches of trees, 

 and enables the plant thus endowed to climb 

 higher to sun and sky, and thus to thrive more 

 vigorously than its less fortunate brothers. The 

 plant so advantageously equipped transmits its 



