ON THE 



MOVEMENTS AND HABITS 



OP 



CLIMBING PLANTS. 



Table of Contents. 



PAGE 



Introduction 1 



Part I. — Sl'IRALLV TWINING PLANTS. 



Axial twisting 5 



Nature of the revolving movement 7 

 Purpose oi' the revolving move- 

 ment, and manner of the spiral 



ascent 9 



Tahle of the rates of revolution . 11 



Anomalous revolvers .... 21 



Yariat ions in the power of twining 21 



Part II. — Leaf-climbeus. 



Clematis 2G 



Troprcolum 31 



Antirrhincoe 38 



Solanum 41 



Fumariaceae 43 



Cocculus 45 



Gloriosa 45 



Flagellaria 40 



Nepenthes 46 



Summary on Leaf-climbers . . 47 



TAGF. 



Part III. — Tendbil-beaeebs. 



Bignoniacca; 49 



Polemoniacece 61 



Legumiuostt) 65 



Composite 67 



Smilacese 68 



Fumariacere 70 



Cucurbitacea: 73 



Vitacete 79 



Sapindaoesa 87 



Passitloracete 89 



Spiral contraction of tendrils . . 92 

 Summary of the nature and ac- 

 tion of tendrils 98 



Part IV. — ITook- AND Koot- 

 cumrehs; Concluding Kemaeks. 



Hook-climbers 105 



lioot-climbers 105 



Concluding remarks on Climbing- 

 plants 107 



I was led to this subject by an interesting, but too short, paper 

 by Professor Asa Gray on the movements of the tendrils of some 

 Cucurbitaceous plants*. My observations were more than half 

 completed before I became aware that the surprising phenomenon 

 of the spontaneous revolutions of the steins and tendrils of 

 climbing plants had been long ago observed by Palm and by 

 Hugo von Mohlf, and had subsequently been the subject of two 



* Proc. Amcr. Acad, of Arts and Sciences, vol. iv. Aug. 12, 1858, p. 98. 

 t Ludwig 1L Palm, Ueber das YVimlen dor Pflanzen ; Hugo von Mold, Ueber 

 den Bau and das Winden der Kankcn mid Schlingpflanzcii, 1827. Palm's 



