January 10, 1903. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
5 
SmW ®he Gardening "World. 
NOTICES TO READERS AND 
CORRESPONDENTS. 
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DIVIDUAL MEMBERS OF THE STAFF. 
EDITORIAL NOTES. 
As the beginning of a New Year has come 
to be regarded as the best time for making 
good resolutions, the new proprietors of The 
Gardening World have fallen in with this 
rule, and have made a considerable number 
of, what we trust our readers will consider, 
extremely good resolutions concerning the 
future of this well-known.and old-established 
paper. 
—o— 
Introductory. 
As good resolutions can scarcely be carried 
out without the proper facilities, a word or 
two of introduction to the new proprietors 
will perhaps be excused. Messrs. Maclaren 
& Sons are the proprietors of a large number 
of trade .journals, most of which are long 
established, and the leading journals in their 
respective trades, and all of which, we might 
be permitted to say, are conducted in a 
manner as enterprising as it is honourable. 
They have an organisation for the work which 
renders possible any development that may 
be necessary. 
—o— 
The New Programme. 
Having acquired possession of The Garden¬ 
ing World, they propose to conduct it in a 
manner which lias not hitherto been 
attempted. Every feature that has hitherto 
been considered of interest in The Garden¬ 
ing World will be continued, new features 
will be constantly introduced, but never to 
the exclusion of the old. The former editor 
of The Gardening World has been retained, 
and will in the future be assisted by a staff 
attached to The Gardening World, and by 
a number of expert writers on all the various 
subjects, some of whom will contribute only 
to The Gardening World. 
—o— 
Size of the “ G.W.” 
The alterations made in this issue are only 
a forerunner of what is to come. The size 
of the paper has been altered, in order to 
make it more convenient to handle; the 
number of pages has been increased to thirty- 
two, and in future the size will be from 
twenty-four to thirty-two pages, with fre¬ 
quent supplements. 
—o— 
Well Illustrated. 
The Gardening World, under this new 
regime, will be profusely illustrated, and not 
only will the illustrations be many, but they 
will be fresh. On this side of the business 
no expense will be spared. It has always 
been Messrs. Maclaren A Sons’ idea rather 
to fulfil than to promise, and, consequently, 
we prefer to leave to the judgment of our 
readers The Gardening World as it appears, 
rather than to prophesy what it will look 
like in the forthcoming numbers, when 
proper arrangements have been made for its 
production. 
—o— 
Difficulties in the Way. 
In this connection we would only ask that 
our readers should be lenient as regards this 
issue, which has been produced under excep¬ 
tionally unfavourable circumstances. The 
change of the proprietorship necessitated the 
change of printers, and this, as all will under¬ 
stand, is a drawback to the production of a 
well-arranged firsj number. 
' —o— 
Numerous Prizes. 
We beg to draw the attention of readers 
to the numerous prizes offered throughout 
the paper, for contributions on various sub¬ 
jects, and also for photographs and pictures. 
These competitions will be worked in the 
fairest possible manner, and, considering the 
prizes offered, ought to prove interesting to 
all. 
The Devices of Climbing Plants. 
Writing in “Knowledge” for January on 
the “ Pea Family,” Mr. It. Lloyd Praeger 
observes :—“ Climbing is a device resorted 
to by many of our native plants, and by a 
far larger number in the. Tropics, by which, 
in the keen struggle for light and air, they 
take advantage of their neighbours to mount 
on their shoulders, and thus secure an 
advantageous position. To- assist them in 
climbing, plants adopt various devices, some 
merely scramble upwards, maintaining their 
position by means of wide-spreading leaves 
or branches; many others use downward- 
pointing hooks, which anchor them amid the 
foliage. It is in the twining plants, such 
as Bryony and Hops, and the tendril-bearers, 
like the Vetches, that we find the highest 
development of the climbing habit. These 
plants live under unusual conditions. In 
order to gain the -light, they must seek, 
rather than avoid, overhanging foliage ; and 
so we find the Vetches, instead of turning 
away from the shadow towards the light like 
most cf their neighbours, boldly pushing up 
into the centre of a bush, to burst into blos¬ 
som amid its upper branches, far above their 
less daring neighbours. Again, in these 
plants, supported by their grasp of adjoining 
branches, the stem no longer needs to act as 
a supporting column, bearing the weight of 
the plant and the stress of weather. It acts 
rather as a conduit through which water 
and dissolved salts—the raw plant-food— 
passes upwards to the leaves. Hence, in¬ 
stead of being thick and stiff, it is thin and 
flexible; often wonderfully slender when we 
consider its length, yet strong and supple, to 
follow without injury the swaying of the 
supporting plant. But it is in the leaves of 
these plants that 'we find the most, remark¬ 
able modifications adapting them to a climb¬ 
ing habit. The leaves of the Vetches and 
Vetchlings are pinnate—they bear a number 
of opposite ovate leaflets. The tip of the 
leaf-stalk, and the uppermost, pair of pinnae, 
are in the climbing species changed into ten¬ 
drils—sensitive, twining, whip-like struc¬ 
tures, which exhibit remarkable features. If 
the slightly curved, extended tendril of a 
young leaf of Pea or Vetch be watched care¬ 
fully, it will'be found that it. is slowly but 
incessantly moving, round and round in a 
circle. If the tendril comes into contact with 
a twig, it bends towards it, and eyentually 
takes several turns round it. Finally, the ten¬ 
dril becomes woody and strong, and forms 
a secure anchor-cable for the plant. Not 
only does the young tendril rotate ; the whole 
leaf on which it is Lome is in continual 
motion. The HrootAc'which the leaf belongs 
is rotating also, so that the tendril is sweep¬ 
ing the air wftK'aPfrtxmplicated motion, in 
the course of which it is almost sure to strike 
against some stem or twig of the surrounding 
vegetation.” 
