But if we hold at the same time a stick in our left hand, in such a position that the strings become spirally turned round it, they will inevitably become twisted.Hence a straight coloured line, painted along the internodes of a twining plant before it has wound round a support, becomes twisted or spiral after it has wound round.Ipainted a red line on the straight internodes of a Humulus, Mikania, Ceropegia, Convolvulus, and Phaseolus, and saw it become twisted as the plant wound round a stick.It is possible that the stems of some plants by spontaneously turning on their own axes, at the proper rate and in the proper direction, might avoid becoming twisted; but I have seen no such case.
In the above illustration, the parallel strings were wound round a stick; but this is by no means necessary, for if wound into a hollow coil (as can be done with a narrow slip of elastic paper) there is the same inevitable twisting of the axis.When, therefore, a free tendril coils itself into a spire, it must either become twisted along its whole length (and this never occurs), or the free extremity must turn round as many times as there are spires formed.It was hardly necessary to observe this fact; but I did so by affixing little paper vanes to the extreme points of the tendrils of Echinocystis and Passiflora quadrangularis; and as the tendril contracted itself into successive spires, the vane slowly revolved.
We can now understand the meaning of the spires being invariably turned in opposite directions, in tendrils which from having caught some object are fixed at both ends.Let us suppose a caught tendril to make thirty spiral turns all in the same direction; the inevitable result would be that it would become twisted thirty times on its own axis.This twisting would not only require considerable force, but, as I know by trial, would burst the tendril before the thirty turns were completed.Such cases never really occur; for, as already stated, when a tendril has caught a support and is spirally contracted, there are always as many turns in one direction as in the other; so that the twisting of the axis in the one direction is exactly compensated by the twisting in the opposite direction.We can further see how the tendency is given to make the later formed coils opposite to those, whether turned to the right or to the left, which are first made.Take a piece of string, and let it hang down with the lower end fixed to the floor; then wind the upper end (holding the string quite loosely) spirally round a perpendicular pencil, and this will twist the lower part of the string; and after it has been sufficiently twisted, it will be seen to curve itself into an open spire, with the curves running in an opposite direction to those round the pencil, and consequently with a straight piece of string between the opposed spires.In short, we have given to the string the regular spiral arrangement of a tendril caught at both ends.The spiral contraction generally begins at the extremity which has clasped a support; and these first-formed spires give a twist to the axis of the tendril, which necessarily inclines the basal part into an opposite spiral curvature.I cannot resist giving one other illustration, though superfluous: when a haberdasher winds up ribbon for a customer, he does not wind it into a single coil; for, if he did, the ribbon would twist itself as many times as there were coils;but he winds it into a figure of eight on his thumb and little finger, so that he alternately takes turns in opposite directions, and thus the ribbon is not twisted.So it is with tendrils, with this sole difference, that they take several consecutive turns in one direction and then the same number in an opposite direction; but in both cases the self-twisting is avoided.
Summary on the Nature and Action of Tendrils.
With the majority of tendril-bearing plants the young internodes revolve in more or less broad ellipses, like those made by twining plants; but the figures described, when carefully traced, generally form irregular ellipsoidal spires.The rate of revolution varies from one to five hours in different species, and consequently is in some cases more rapid than with any twining plant, and is never so slow as with those many twiners which take more than five hours for each revolution.The direction is variable even in the same individual plant.In Passiflora, the internodes of only one species have the power of revolving.The Vine is the weakest revolver observed by me, apparently exhibiting only a trace of a former power.
In the Eccremocarpus the movement is interrupted by many long pauses.
Very few tendril-bearing plants can spirally twine up an upright stick.Although the power of twining has generally been lost, either from the stiffness or shortness of the internodes, from the size of the leaves, or from some other unknown cause, the revolving movement of the stem serves to bring the tendrils into contact with surrounding objects.
The tendrils themselves also spontaneously revolve.The movement begins whilst the tendril is young, and is at first slow.The mature tendrils of Bignonia littoralis move much slower than the internodes.
Generally, the internodes and tendrils revolve together at the same rate; in Cissus, Cobaea, and most Passiflorae, the tendrils alone revolve; in other cases, as with Lathyrus aphaca, only the internodes move, carrying with them the motionless tendrils; and, lastly (and this is the fourth possible case), neither internodes nor tendrils spontaneously revolve, as with Lathyrus grandiflorus and Ampelopsis.
In most Bignonias, Eccremocarpus Mutisia, and the Fumariaceae, the internodes, petioles and tendrils all move harmoniously together.In every case the conditions of life must be favourable in order that the different parts should act in a perfect manner.
