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Updated: May 24, 2025
In the present plant the two lateral branches of the main flower-peduncle have been converted into a pair of tendrils, corresponding with the single "flower-tendril" of the common vine. The main peduncle is thin, stiff, and from 3 to 4.5 inches in length. Near the summit, above two little bracts, it divides into three branches.
From the general character of the genus, the loss of power seems the more probable alternative. In the present species, in T. elegans, and probably in others, the flower-peduncle, as soon as the seed-capsule begins to swell, spontaneously bends abruptly downwards and becomes somewhat convoluted.
If we inquire how a petiole, a branch or flower-peduncle first became sensitive to a touch, and acquired the power of bending towards the touched side, we get no certain answer. Nevertheless an observation by Hofmeister well deserves attention, namely, that the shoots and leaves of all plants, whilst young, move after being shaken.
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.
The tendrils and the flower-peduncles rise close side by side; and my son, William E. Darwin, made sketches for me of their earliest state of development in the hybrid P. floribunda. The two organs appear at first as a single papilla which gradually divides; so that the tendril appears to be a modified branch of the flower-peduncle.
My son found one very young tendril surmounted by traces of floral organs, exactly like those on the summit of the true flower-peduncle at the same early age. Passiflora gracilis. This well-named, elegant, annual species differs from the other members of the group observed by me, in the young internodes having the power of revolving.
Berkeley thinks that Payer's view is the most probable, namely, that the tendril is "a separate portion of the leaf itself;" but much may be said in favour of the belief that it is a modified flower-peduncle. Echinocystis lobata. My observations may now be much condensed.
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