62 BOTANY FOR BEGINNERS. Ch. X 
coarse scales of a fish; they are often green, sometimes colour- 
ed, and are found upon all parts of vegetables, upon the roots 
of bulbous plants, and upon the stems and branches of other 
plants. They are imbricated upon the calyxes of most of the 
compound flowers. You have seen in buds, how important the 
scales are to protect the embryo plant during the winter. Scales 
surround the flowers of grasses, under the name of glumes. 
They envelope and sustain the stamens and fruit of the pine, 
cak, chestnut, &c. 
Fig. 40. 
~ 248. Tendrils, or claspers, are threadlike, 
SS or filiform appendages, by which weak stems 
attach themselves to other bodies for sup- 
port; they usually rise from the branches, in 
; , some cases from the leaf, and rarely from 
| , the leaf-stalk or flower-stalk. You have here 
lf the representation, Fig. 40, of a tendril. 
jy ‘Tendrils are very important and characteris- 
tic appendages to many plants. In the 
Trumpet flower and Ivy, the tendrils serve 
for roots, planting themselves into the bark 
of trees, or in the walls of buildings. In the 
Cucumber and some other plants, tendrils 
serve both for sustenance and shade. Many 
\ », of the papilionaceous, or Pea blossom plants, 
cease ascending only because they can find 
WY nothing higher to climb upon. One of our 
~~ E most beautiful climbing plants is the CLuma- 
WO TIs virginica, or Virgin’s bower, which has 
2 flowers of a brilliant whiteness; in autumn, 
= its pericarps, with the long pistils remaining 
upon them, look like festoons of rich, yellowish fringe. 
249. Pubescence includes ail down, hairs, woolliness, or 
silkiness of plants. The pubescence of plants varies in differ 
ent soils, and with different modes of cultivation. The species 
in some genera of plants are distinguished by the direction ot 
the hairs. A microscope is sometimes necessary in determining 
with precision the existence and direction of the pubescence. 
It has been suggested that these appendages may be given to 
348. Whatare tendrils ? 
249, What is incigded under the term pubescence 1 
a Puen eee 
