America, which so abounds with arboreal animals,
as Mr. Bates remarks, likewise abounds according to Mohl and Palm
with climbing plants; and of the tendril-bearing plants examined by
me, the highest developed kinds are natives of this grand continent,
namely, the several species of Bignonia, Eccremocarpus, Cobaea, and
Ampelopsis. But even in the thickets of our temperate regions the
number of climbing species and individuals is considerable, as will
be found by counting them. They belong to many and widely different
orders. To gain some rude idea of their distribution in the
vegetable series, I marked, from the lists given by Mohl and Palm
(adding a few myself, and a competent botanist, no doubt, could have
added many more), all those families in Lindley's 'Vegetable Kingdom'
which include twiners, leaf-climbers, or tendril-bearers. Lindley
divides Phanerogamic plants into fifty-nine Alliances; of these, no
less than thirty-five include climbing plants of the above kinds,
hook and root-climbers being excluded. To these a few Cryptogamic
plants must be added. When we reflect on the wide separation of
these plants in the series, and when we know that in some of the
largest, well-defined orders, such as the Compositae, Rubiaceae,
Scrophulariaceae, Liliaceae, &c.
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