I then surrounded
the plant with a mass of branched twigs; the shoots ascended, and
passed through them, but several came out laterally, and their
depending extremities seldom turned upwards as is usual with twining
plants. Finally, I surrounded a second plant with many thin upright
sticks, and placed it near the first one with twigs; and now both had
got what they liked, for they twined up the parallel sticks,
sometimes winding round one and sometimes round several; and the
shoots travelled laterally from one to the other pot; but as the
plants grew older, some of the shoots twined regularly up thin
upright sticks. Though the revolving movement was sometimes in one
direction and sometimes in the other, the twining was invariably from
left to right; {18} so that the more potent or persistent movement of
revolution must have been in opposition to the course of the sun. It
would appear that this Hibbertia is adapted both to ascend by
twining, and to ramble laterally through the thick Australian scrub.
I have described the above case in some detail, because, as far as I
have seen, it is rare to find any special adaptations with twining
plants, in which respect they differ much from the more highly
organized tendril-bearers.
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