File:The natural history of plants, their forms, growth, reproduction, and distribution; (1902) (14596910538).jpg

Identifier: naturalhistoryof01kern (find matches)
Title: The natural history of plants, their forms, growth, reproduction, and distribution;
Year: 1902 (1900s)
Authors: Kerner von Marilaun, Anton, 1831-1898 Oliver, Francis Wall, 1864- Macdonald, Mary Frances Ewart Busk, Marian Balfour, Lady
Subjects: Botany
Publisher: London, Blackie
Contributing Library: NCSU Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: NCSU Libraries

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ys in his HimalayanJournals:—We found great scandent trees twisting around the trunks of othersand strangling them: the latter gradually decay, leaving the sheath of climbers as oneof the most remarkable vegetable phenomena of these mountains. When at lengththe climber, deprived of its original support, also dies, its roots and stem-structuresbecome bleached, and its curious forms, in which to speak with Martins, theexcited imagination fancies it recognizes fantastic spectres and gigantic voraciousmonsters, rise up weirdly against the dusky background of the primeval tropicalforest. The manner in which climbing roots become fixed upon their supports is notless varied than their manifold structural modifications. It has already been statedthat the climbing roots are light - avoiding, and that their growing points aredirected towards the rocky faces and boughless tree - trunks upon which theyclimb Should the distance between the stem and the wall be not great, the CLIMBING PLANTS. 705
Text Appearing After Image:
-Ficus with girdle-like clasping loots, at Dai climbing roots grow out directly to the wall. This is usually the case withclimbing plants. Several Aroidese and species of Ficus, and especially our ivy(Hedera Helix), the shoots of which occur anywhere at the foot of a tree-trunk or Vol. I. 48 706 CLIMBING PLANTS. of a rocky wall, develop climbing roots close below the growing shoot-apex. Theseroots speedily reach the wall and fasten the portion of the stem from which theyarise to it. This continues slowly, the shoot-apex continually creeping higher upover the substratum. This is the simplest way in which climbing stems becomeattached. The process by which those of the often-cited Tecoma radicans areaffixed is much more complex. These stems shun the light in a marked degree.If Tecoma radicans is planted in front of a wall covered with trellis-work, theactively growing shoots turn away from the light, slip behind the trellis-work, andadhere closely to the wall by those portions of the st

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