110 THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIS‘. 
at night to feed and move about. The specimens exhibited 
belong to the genus Hyperhomola, occurring in tropical 
climates. 
rt 
CLIMBING METHODS IN AUSTRALIAN PLANTS. 
Prize Essay by Miss F. M. Irby. 
The two methods that seem to prevail over most 
others in our native plants, for climbing purposes, are ten- 
drils, for attaching themselves to any object within reach; 
and the long sinuous shoot, a tender helpless-looking thing 
swaying with every breath of wind, but with snake-like , 
head advanced, it grows and sways until it reaches the 
nearest suitable object, and gradually curls around it, 
ever twining closer and closer, sometimes, especially in the 
case of Mucuna gigantea and Derris scandens, cutting al- 
most right through the luckless tree or shrub seized upon. 
Amongst the many plants that have this way of climbing 
are the Wistarias, the Lonchocarpus Blackii, and the Big- 
nonias. The Hoya has the same manner of climbing, but 
most of its shoots are covered with a roughened surface 
like tiny undeveloped rootlets. The reason for this is not 
far to seek. The Hoya shoots, with their solid waxen 
leaves, are so heavy, that unless they find something with- 
in easy reach to cling to, their own weight drags them, to 
the ground, and the rooted-like growth (which, in the 
event of the shoot finding something to climb, soon dries 
off and disappears) at once takes hold and grows. 
The Native Passion Vines climb with the aid of single 
curly tendrils, which, catching hold of anything and every- 
thing within reach, enable the creeper to cover, with a_ 
curtain-like draping, whole clumps of shrubs and plants. 
The littla Red Melon has much the same habit of 
climbing, but in its case the much-curled tendril is forked. 
The Native Grape also has a forked tendril; this is 
strong and vice-like, and usually takes but one or two 
twists round the object it attaches itself to. 
Even more wire-like are the tendrils of the Bush Law- 
yer, Smilax Australis, a pair of which spring from the 
base of each leaf. 
In the young shoots of the Climbing Bamboo the 
grass-like leaves taper into a delicate fibre-like tendril 
which seizes upon anything that comes in its way, and 
enables this handsome plant to climb over the heads of 
some of the tallest brush trees. 
