It is all the more
remarkable, as botanists believe (Mohl, p. 119) that twining plants
are but little sensitive to the action of light.
I will conclude my account of twining plants by giving a few
miscellaneous and curious cases. With most twining plants all the
branches, however many there may be, go on revolving together; but,
according to Mohl (p. 4), only the lateral branches of Tamus
elephantipes twine, and not the main stem. On the other hand, with a
climbing species of Asparagus, the leading shoot alone, and not the
branches, revolved and twined; but it should be stated that the plant
was not growing vigorously. My plants of Combretum argenteum and C.
purpureum made numerous short healthy shoots; but they showed no
signs of revolving, and I could not conceive how these plants could
be climbers; but at last C. argenteum put forth from the lower part
of one of its main branches a thin shoot, 5 or 6 feet in length,
differing greatly in appearance from the previous shoots, owing to
its leaves being little developed, and this shoot revolved vigorously
and twined. So that this plant produces shoots of two kinds. With
Periploca Graeca (Palm, p.
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