55 



ON CLIMBING PLANTS. 



The term climbing is applied by gardeners to all plants which, from the 

 weak and flexible nature of their stems, are obliged to attach themselves to any 

 objects within their reach for support. The mode in which this attachment is 

 effected varies greatly in different plants, and is expressed in the language of 

 botany by different terms indicative of their several peculiarities. Thus the stem 

 of the Ivy (Hedera helix) throws out from one side a number of root-like pro- 

 cesses, which insert themselves into the crevices of trees, rocks, or walls, and 

 thus enables the plant to elevate its foliage and fructification sufficiently high to 

 be exposed to the influence of the sun and air.* The ash-leaved trumpet-flower 

 (Bignonia radicans) presents another instance of this peculiar mode of climbing, 

 whence it has received its specific name, radicans. 



The stems of those plants to which the term climbing, or scandent, is more 

 particularly applied by botanists, are furnished with those curious, spiral appen- 

 dages, called tendrils, which they twine around the branches of stronger plants, 

 and by which they are enabled, in some instances, to support, far above the 

 ground, a considerable weight of fruit. The Vine {Vitis vinifera), and the dif- 

 ferent species of Passion-flower (Passiflora) , offer familiar examples. 



A third mode by which plants are enabled to climb, is by the twining, or 

 voluble nature of their stems, which they wind spirally around any upright plants, 

 or such other objects as they are able to approach. Here the plant is not sup- 

 ported by root-like fibres, as in the Ivy, nor by tendrils, as in the Vine, but 

 simply by its own convolutions. These convolutions are governed in their direc- 

 tion by certain, invariable laws. Thus in the common Hop (Humulus lupulus), 

 the twining is from left to right ; while in the Kidney-bean (Phaseolus multi- 

 florus), it is from right to left ; and this tendency is so natural and so irresistible 

 in all plants of the same species, that any attempt to reverse it invariably fails ; 

 for each plant will again assume its peculiar direction, and if constantly thwarted 

 in its natural tendency, will soon become sickly, and eventually perish. 



Such are the climbing plants, as distinguished by botanists, many of which 

 possess great beauty in themselves, and are often in the highest degree orna- 

 mental to the trees and shrubs round which they cling for support. The British 

 Isles furnish many kinds of climbing plants, some of which are truly elegant ; as 

 the Convolvolus of the Hedges {Calystegia septum), and the Wood- vetch (Vicia 

 sylvatica) ; but to have a just conception of their grandeur and magnificence, we 

 must view the forests of Tropical regions. We see them in our own country 

 with slender stems, attaching themselves to bushes, hedges, and the lower 



* Ivy, as seen growing on level ground, or creeping along the bottoms of hedges, or in any situations where 

 it is not allowed to ascend, is never found in fructification. 



