Muller informs me that in S. Brazil there is another
species which is a leaf-climber. Mutisia is the only genus in the
family, as far as I can learn, which bears tendrils: it is therefore
interesting to find that these, though rather less metamorphosed from
their primordial foliar condition than are most other tendrils, yet
display all the ordinary characteristic movements, both those that
are spontaneous and those which are excited by contact.
The long leaf bears seven or eight alternate leaflets, and terminates
in a tendril which, in a plant of considerable size, was 5 inches in
length. It consists generally of three branches; and these, although
much elongated, evidently represent the petioles and midribs of three
leaflets; for they closely resemble the same parts in an ordinary
leaf, in being rectangular on the upper surface, furrowed, and edged
with green. Moreover, the green edging of the tendrils of young
plants sometimes expands into a narrow lamina or blade. Each branch
is curved a little downwards, and is slightly hooked at the
extremity.
A young upper internode revolved, judging from three revolutions, at
an average rate of 1 hr. 38 m.
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