1879.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
233 
perhaps not think so. Here is one girl, who writes that 
she likes to read what I say about plants, and wishes I 
would tell you “ some more 
ABOUT WONDERFUL PLANTS."’ 
When we think about it, is one plant any more “ won¬ 
derful ” than another ? Some are more rare, others more 
strange and unusual, because they are in various respects 
different from the great majority of plants, but after all, 
what a wonder is the commonest plant! Its very first 
appearance, as it starts from the seed—the seed itself, 
what a mystery it is! Did you ever think of this ? Sup¬ 
pose that all the plants that we now know and see about 
ns, were only increased by cuttings, just as rose-bushes, 
geraniums, potatoes, etc., now are multiplied, by setting 
out a piece of another plant. Suppose a traveller should 
come from some far country with a spoonful of—we will 
say—cabbage seed in a vial, and tell us that each little 
brown hard grain would produce a cabbage! Who would 
believe him ?—Then some learned society would look at 
the matter, see the seed planted, and in a few days would 
come a little plant—not at first much like a cabbage, but 
growing every day more and more like one, and at last 
this strangest of stories would be believed ! How peo¬ 
ple would come from far and near to just look at the seed. 
BARNUM NEVER HAD SUCH A SHOW 
as the growing of a cabbage from one of these grains 
would be ! If a seed—every seed, from one so fine as to 
be almost like dust, to one as large as a cocoa-nut—is 
such a wonder, still greater is the plant that comes from 
the seed, and will produce more like it. Look at any 
plant, a pink or an apple-tree—what is it doing? You 
know the green leaf, the fragrant flower, the delicious 
fruit—where do they come from ?—“ The plants,” you will 
eay.—But how “ They grow.”—That is just as far as 
many grown people get. Observe the plant; it stands in 
the earth where its roots are hidden ; its stems and leaves 
are in the air where they receive the rain—these are all, 
the earth, the air, and the water, and not only pinks, 
apples, but all our food comes, and that of all animal life, 
from these. Ah, yes, there is one thing more—the blessed 
sunlight must help. Isn’t there something wonderful 
about every plant when yon look at what it is doing?— 
I may say more about this work of the plant as it builds 
up fruits, grains, and the thousands of other kinds of 
food—but just now I will tell yon about 
SOME CURIOUS MOVEMENTS OF PLANTS. 
A few plants, like the Sensitive Plant, which shuts up 
its leaves at the slightest touch, and the Venus’ Fly-trap, 
that brings the halves of its leaf together with a snap, 
quick enough to catch a lively insect, are well known ex¬ 
amples of movement in plants ; the motions in these are 
so quick as to be noticeable, and are often described as 
among the wonders of plant life. But there are other 
plants which move, very slowly, it is true, but not the 
less certainly. If you watch the different climbing plants 
you may see that the end of a bean-vine or a Morning 
Glory may be straight one day, and the next be tightly 
coiled around a pole or a string. It is not likely that any 
one twined the stem in this manner, and it must have 
moved of its own accord, so to speak, and gone round 
to themselves will spread upon the ground. You perhaps 
also know, that if given a chance, such as brush near 
at hand, they will climb upon it. You perhaps have 
noticed that when such plants do climb, they catch upon 
and hold to the brush or other support by means of long, 
slender twisted helpers, called tendrils. But you need 
not confine yourselves to plants of this kind, for many 
other climbers show the same thing; the grape-vine is 
also a good illustration, as are some of the climbers cul¬ 
tivated for ornament. A growing cucumber or squash is 
to be found in every garden, and is a good plant to watch. 
and the other from right to left, to offset the twisting of 
the other part. If the end of the tendril is not made fast, 
of course the whole can coil ir. one direction. The plant 
in the engraving shows what you may observe in many 
vines ; a straight tendril, with a slight hook in the end, 
in search of something to catch upon ; a tendril not fas¬ 
tened at one end, twisted all one way, and a tendril which 
has caught and made fast, and is twisted in botli ways. 
WATCH YOUR CLIMBING PLANTS. 
You will find that some, like the bean, twine about tho 
pole or other support; others, like the grape, cucumber, 
VINE CLIMBING BY TENDRILS. 
If you observe the tendril, the long, slender, wire-like 
shoot, whether on one of these, or on the grape-vine, you 
will notice that it is at first long and nearly straight, but, 
as shown in the engraving, with a slight hook at the end. 
It is a fact, which you may observe, if you watch closely, 
from time to time, that a tendril has a slow, sweeping mo¬ 
tion, and when its hooked end touches a twig, or a part of 
its own plant, it catches and holds fast to it. Then there 
happens a very curious thing, the tendril being made 
and round. It did this so slowly that however closely 
you watched you could not see it move, but the coils of 
the stem around the pole or other support show plainly 
that the motion has taken place. There are many in¬ 
teresting things to notice about the various climbing 
plants, but I can call your attention now to only the 
PLANTS WHICH CLIMB BY TENDRILS. 
Many a boy has hoed the cucumber, the squash, and 
the melon vines, thinking it a task, and not knowing 
that these vines had anything to interest him, much less 
that they could show him some very wonderful facts. 
Still it is true that every vine of this kind has a wonder— 
Indeed, many wonders—to interest those who care to see. 
You know that encumbers and related plants while left 
STRANGE AFRICAN PLANT.—THE WELWITSCHIA. 
fast at the ends, begins to twist itself into coils, and thus 
brings the stem of the plant closer to the support. There 
is something very peculiar about this coiling which I 
wish you to especially notice. If the tendril coiled all in 
one direction, it would be very badly twisted, so you will 
find that when a tendril is fixed at one end, it is coiled in 
two directions; one part will be coiled from left to right, 
etc., have special organs, tendrils, to help them climb ; 
in others, like the pea, the end of the leaf is formed into 
a tendril, and others still, climb by the twisting of the 
leaf stalk. But as some of you wish to be told of 
WONDERFUL PLANTS, 
I can tell you of one that seems to me as much unlike 
other plants as any I ever saw or read about. You know 
that many plants—for example, beans, squashes, Morn¬ 
ing-Glories, and a host of others—when they first come 
up, bear a pair of “seed-leaves;” as the plant grows, 
other leaves appear, which arc quite different from these 
first, or seed-leaves. In the bean, where the seed-leaves 
are very unlike the other leaves, they soon fall away; in 
the squash and others, they grow larger and remain for 
some time before they perish. In Africa a plant has 
been discovered which 
NEVER HAS ANY OTHER THAN SEED-LEAVES 1 
Were this an annual, and like the bean and squash, die 
at the end of the season, it would not be so strange, but 
this plant is a long-lived one, living on for a century or 
more, and never having any other leaves besides the 
pair which came from the seed. The engraving will give 
you the strange appearance this plant presents. It is 
found in a sandy region in western Africa, where the 
whole country is covered with these wooden blocks, sel¬ 
dom over a foot high, and from a few inches tofive or six 
feet across. Its leaves are but two, and these the original 
seed leaves, which are, of course, evergreen, and grow to 
the length of six feet, being in time much whipped and 
torn at the ends. This plant was discovered by an Afri¬ 
can explorer, Doct. Welwitsch, and it bears bis name, 
being called I Velwitschia. One of the most interesting 
things that I saw at the Centennial Exhibition was a 
specimen of this plant, with a trunk about two feet 
across. It was in the Portuguese collection, but being 
without a label but very few who saw it knew what it 
was_Charley Wilson, in Mass., wishes me to tell him 
“all about the vanilla-bean, 
how large are the seed, and is it really a bean {’’—Charley 
is more cautious than a man who called on us a few years 
ago, to know where he could get Vanilla-beans. I 
found that the man was on his way to Florida, in¬ 
tending to go into the 
cultivation of Vanilla- 
beans, which lie suppos¬ 
ed grew like Limas or 
other pole beans, and 
was all ready to start ex¬ 
cept getting his beans 
for seed. The poor fel¬ 
low was much disheart¬ 
ened When I showed 
him that the Vanilla- 
bean was not a bean, 
and probably would 
not grow in Florida at 
all. The useful portion 
of Vanilla is the dried 
seed-pod ; this is 8 to Iff 
inches long, about as 
thick as a lead pencil, 
but wrinkled and flat¬ 
tened—and within con¬ 
tains the seeds, which 
are surrounded by a 
thick pulp. The seeds are black and shining, and are as 
small perhaps as any seeds you ever saw. There is noth¬ 
ing like a bean about it. This term bean is used for vari¬ 
ous fruits, just as berry is used for things that are not 
berries, and is likely to mislead. The Vanilla plant be¬ 
longs to the Orchid Family, many of which are 
AIR-PLANTS OR EPIPHYTES, 
that is, plants which live upon trees, without any con¬ 
nection with the ground. Vanilla is a climber, attaching 
itself to trees by means of roots thrown out at everyjoint, 
and though it at first has roots in the ground, it can grow 
without these. It is easy to see that a plant of this kind 
can only flourish in warm and damp forests, and the 
places where it can be cultivated arc very few indeed. 
