ject, they instantly fix on it,
forming closely compacted rings, which can be untwisted only when
young. As the plant rises from one height to another, the little green
shoots above send out fresh leaves, each having the same prehensile
properties, which they keep in reserve till called on to apply them to
their proper use; whilst at the same time, the lower rings are
becoming indurated, so that, as the plant grows longer and heavier,
its supports become stronger and harder. There are other plants
besides the clematideae which thus support themselves, of which the
_Maurandya Barclayana_ and the _Canariensis_ are examples; and the
manner in which these accommodate themselves to the exact form of the
object on which they seize, is very remarkable. If the support is
round, the ring is also round; but if they fix on a square lath, or
other angular thing, the stem forms to it, so that when the prop is
removed, the ring retains the exact form of that prop, every angle
being as sharp and true, as if it were moulded in wax.

Now, the next plant which greets us is the ivy (_Hedera helix_), and
this differs wholly in its means of support from almost any other
creeper; yet there is none that takes firmer hold, or maintains more
strongly its position, than this beautiful creeper, whose ceaseless
verdure well deserves the name of ivy--a word derived from the Celtic,
and signifying _green_. It is supported by means of a whitish fringe
of fibres, that are thrust out from one side of every part of the stem
which comes in contact with any wall or other supporting object to
which it can cling. Should a foreign substance, such as a leaf,
intervene between it and that object, the fibres lengthen until they
extend beyond the impediment; and then they fix on the desired object,
and cease to grow.

These fibres, however; are not true roots--a branch with only such
roots, would not grow if planted in the earth--they are mere
holdfasts, and the plant does not receive any portion of its
nourishment through them. The upper part of the plant, where it has
mounted above the wall and become arborescent, is wholly devoid of
such fibres, which never appear but when they have some object to fix
upon.

And now, let us look at that which is the very pride of my garden, and
which well deserves the name bestowed on it by a poetic-minded
friend--'the patrician flower:' I mean the beautiful _Cobea scandens_;
and here we are introduced to quite a differen