Page:Darwin - On the movements and habits of climbing plants.djvu/2

ON THE

MOVEMENTS AND HABITS

OF

CLIMBING PLANTS.

Table of Contents.

PAGE

PAGE

Introduction ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

1

Part I.—Spirally twining Plants.

Axial twisting ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

5

Nature of the revolving movement ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

7

Purpose of the revolving movement, and manner of the spiral ascent ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

9

Table of the rates of revolution ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

14

Anomalous revolvers ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

21

Variations in the power of twining ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

24

Part II.—Leaf-climbers.

Clematis ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

26

Tropæolum ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

34

Antirrhineæ ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

38

Solanum ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

41

Fumariaceæ ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

43

Cocculus ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

45

Gloriosa ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

45

Flagellaria ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

46

Nepenthes ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

46

Summary on Leaf-climbers ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

47

Part III.—Tendril-bearers.

Bignoniaceæ ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

49

Polemoniaceæ ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

61

Leguminosæ ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

65

Compositæ ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

67

Smilaceæ ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

68

Fumariaceæ ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

70

Cucurbitaceæ ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

73

Vitaceæ ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

79

Sapindaceæ ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

87

Passifloraceæ ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

89

Spiral contraction of tendrils ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

92

Summary of the nature and action of tendrils ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

98

Part IV.—Hook- and Root-climbers; Concluding Remarks.

Hook-climbers ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

105

Root-climbers ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

105

Concluding remarks on Climbing-plants ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

107

 

I was led to this subject by an interesting, but too short, paper by Professor Asa Gray on the movements of the tendrils of some Cucurbitaceous plants^[1]. My observations were more than half completed before I became aware that the surprising phenomenon of the spontaneous revolutions of the steins and tendrils of climbing plants had been long ago observed by Palm and by Hugo von Mohl^[2], and had subsequently been the subject of two

1. Proc. Amer. Acad, of Arts and Sciences, vol. iv. Aug. 12, 1858, p. 98.
2. Ludwig H. Palm, Ueber das Winden der Pflanzen; Hugo von Mold, Ueber den Bau and das Winden der Ranken und Schlingpflanzen, 1827. Palm's