第38章 TENDRIL-BEARERS--(continued)(4)

The young internodes revolve spontaneously; but the movement is unusually slight.A shoot faced a window, and I traced its course on the glass during two perfectly calm and hot days.On one of these days it described, in the course of ten hours, a spire, representing two and a half ellipses.I also placed a bell-glass over a young Muscat grape in the hot-house, and it made each day three or four very small oval revolutions; the shoot moving less than half an inch from side to side.Had it not made at least three revolutions whilst the sky was uniformly overcast, I should have attributed this slight degree of movement to the varying action of the light.The extremity of the stem is more or less bent downwards, but it never reverses its curvature, as so generally occurs with twining plants.

Various authors (Palm, p.55; Mohl, p.45; Lindley, &c.) believe that the tendrils of the vine are modified flower-peduncles.I here give a drawing (fig.10) of the ordinary state of a young flower-stalk:

it consists of the "common peduncle" (A); of the "flower-tendril"(B), which is represented as having caught a twig; and of the "sub-peduncle" (C) bearing the flower-buds.The whole moves spontaneously, like a true tendril, but in a less degree; the movement, however, is greater when the sub-peduncle (C) does not bear many flower-buds.The common peduncle (A) has not the power of clasping a support, nor has the corresponding part of a true tendril.

The flower-tendril (B) is always longer than the sub-peduncle (C) and has a scale at its base; it sometimes bifurcates, and therefore corresponds in every detail with the longer scale-bearing branch (B, fig.9) of the true tendril.It is, however, inclined backwards from the sub-peduncle (C), or stands at right angles with it, and is thus adapted to aid in carrying the future bunch of grapes.When rubbed, it curves and subsequently straightens itself; and it can, as is shown in the drawing, securely clasp a support.I have seen an object as soft as a young vine-leaf caught by one.

The lower and naked part of the sub-peduncle (C) is likewise slightly sensitive to a rub, and I have seen it bent round a stick and even partly round a leaf with which it had come into contact.That the sub-peduncle has the same nature as the corresponding branch of an ordinary tendril, is well shown when it bears only a few flowers; for in this case it becomes less branched, increases in length, and gains both in sensitiveness and in the power of spontaneous movement.Ihave twice seen sub-peduncles which bore from thirty to forty flower-buds, and which had become considerably elongated and were completely wound round sticks, exactly like true tendrils.The whole length of another sub-peduncle, bearing only eleven flower-buds, quickly became curved when slightly rubbed; but even this scanty number of flowers rendered the stalk less sensitive than the other branch, that is, the flower-tendril; for the latter after a lighter rub became curved more quickly and in a greater degree.I have seen a sub-peduncle thickly covered with flower-buds, with one of its higher lateral branchlets bearing from some cause only two buds; and this one branchlet had become much elongated and had spontaneously caught hold of an adjoining twig; in fact, it formed a little sub-tendril.The increasing length of the sub-peduncle (C) with the decreasing number of the flower-buds is a good instance of the law of compensation.In accordance with this same principle, the true tendril as a whole is always longer than the flower-stalk; for instance, on the same plant, the longest flower-stalk (measured from the base of the common peduncle to the tip of the flower-tendril) was 8.5 inches in length, whilst the longest tendril was nearly double this length, namely 16inches.

The gradations from the ordinary state of a flower-stalk, as represented in the drawing (fig.10), to that of a true tendril (fig.

9) are complete.We have seen that the sub-peduncle (C), whilst still bearing from thirty to forty flower-buds, sometimes becomes a little elongated and partially assumes all the characters of the corresponding branch of a true tendril.From this state we can trace every stage till we come to a full-sized perfect tendril, bearing on the branch which corresponds with the sub-peduncle one single flower-bud! Hence there can be no doubt that the tendril is a modified flower-peduncle.

Another kind of gradation well deserves notice.Flower-tendrils (B, fig.10) sometimes produce a few flower-buds.For instance, on a vine growing against my house, there were thirteen and twenty-two flower-buds respectively on two flower-tendrils, which still retained their characteristic qualities of sensitiveness and spontaneous movement, but in a somewhat lessened degree.On vines in hothouses, so many flowers are occasionally produced on the flower-tendrils that a double bunch of grapes is the result; and this is technically called by gardeners a "cluster." In this state the whole bunch of flowers presents scarcely any resemblance to a tendril; and, judging from the facts already given, it would probably possess little power of clasping a support, or of spontaneous movement.Such flower-stalks closely resemble in structure those borne by Cissus.This genus, belonging to the same family of the Vitaceae, produces well-developed tendrils and ordinary bunches of flowers; but there are no gradations between the two states.If the genus Vitis had been unknown, the boldest believer in the modification of species would never have surmised that the same individual plant, at the same period of growth, would have yielded every possible gradation between ordinary flower-stalks for the support of the flowers and fruit, and tendrils used exclusively for climbing.But the vine clearly gives us such a case; and it seems to me as striking and curious an instance of transition as can well be conceived.