Ii6 THE ASSOCIATIONS OF FLOWERS 
of beauty, and is beautiful, even to those who, in their 
observations, recognise no science, but judge simply by 
their uninstructed senses. 
Many weak plants are provided with tendrils, by whose 
means they attain to great height, or are enabled to re- 
sist the winds. The tendril or clasper (called by botan- 
ists cirnis) is at first a straight thread-like shoot, which 
afterwards assumes a spiral form, and clinging to some 
other object, becomes gradually firmer in its texture. 
That its mode of growth gives this prop additional 
strength is evident from the fact that the tendril of a 
plant is much stronger than a straight branch of equal 
size. On some tendrils other shoots put forth, forming 
a compound tendril, and giving the plant to which they 
belong a still further means of support. 
Tendrils are usually found on the stems of a climb- 
ing plant, but there are instances in which they grow 
at the end of each leaf ; and in one singular genus 
(Strophanthus) the points of the bright yellow petals 
(or divisions of the coloured part of the flower) become 
tendrils, and twine about the branches of neighbouring 
plants. 
Many plants, besides possessing tendrils, have a stem 
and leaf-stalks, which grow in a spiral slope, when the 
plant requires the support of another. Thus the travel- 
ler’s joy, or wild clematis, that beautiful ornament of 
our summer hedges, by its stems as well as tendrils, so 
clings to the bushes that it is impossible to sever a large 
portion without tearing it. The large white clusters of 
flowers, and the numerous dark leaves, seeming to belong 
to the brambles among v/hich they entwine, so closely 
are they interlaced by the convolutions of their stems. 
When a plant which needs the assistance of claspers 
is situated at some distance from a wall or tree, its ten- 
drils form on that side of it which is nearest that object ; 
a provision which is remarkably adapted to the need of 
the w’eaker vegetable. 
It is a bright sunshiny morning in June. The earth 
seemed yesterday covered with leaves and flowers, and 
the garden was full of them. Sweet-williams in all their 
glory ; honeysuckles twining about the bushes, and cloth- 
ing them with their fairy trumpets ; lychnises, too bright 
