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Updated: May 21, 2025
In your country, the bark of the trees is clad with lichens and mosses, and the parasite mistletoe suspends itself to the branches, more as a burden than as an ornament; here, numerous families of the orchis, with their singular forms, showy and variegated blossoms, climb along the knotty stems of the tall monarchs of the forests; from their feet spring up, as if to enlace them with a magic network, the brilliant passiflora, the vanilla with its intoxicating perfume, the banisteria whose roots seem to have dived into mines of gold and borrowed from thence the color of its petals!
We are reminded by this latter fact of the extraordinary cases of Hippeastrum, Passiflora, etc., which seed much more freely when fertilised with the pollen of a distinct species than when fertilised with pollen from the same plant.
Stephanotis, passiflora, tuberose, alamanda, Bougainvillea, and other trailers of gorgeous colors, climb over everything, and make the night heavy with their odors. There must be more than forty rooms in this old place, besides great arched corridors, and all manner of queer staircases and corners. Dutch tiling and angularities and conceits of all kinds abound.
On one occasion I observed a tendril revolving with the convex side of the tip forwards, and in consequence it was not able to clasp a stick, against which it scraped; whereas tendrils revolving with the concave side forward, promptly seize any object in their path. Passiflora quadrangularis. This is a very distinct species.
But in Cobaea and Passiflora punctata the tendrils begin to revolve in a useless manner, before they have become sensitive. In the Echinocystis they retain their sensitiveness for some time after they have ceased to revolve and after they have sunk downwards; in this position, even if they were able to seize an object, such power would be of no service in supporting the stem.
When, however, the tendril of a plant of which the stem is immovably fixed, catches some fixed object, it does not contract, simply because it cannot; this, however, rarely occurs. In the common Pea the lateral branches alone contract, and not the central stem; and with most plants, such as the Vine, Passiflora, Bryony, the basal portion never forms a spire.
For planting in a warm corner of a rather dry border it seems to be well suited; but it is perfectly hardy and free of growth when suited with soil and site. It is as yet rare in cultivation, but is sure, when better known and more widely disseminated, to become a general favourite with lovers of hardy shrubs. PASSIFLORA CAERULEA. Passion Flower. Brazil and Peru, 1699.
One of my chief reasons for doubting whether the curvature from a touch is the result of growth, is the extraordinary rapidity of the movement. I have seen the extremity of a tendril of Passiflora gracilis, after being touched, distinctly bent in 25 seconds, and often in 30 seconds; and so it is with the thicker tendril of Sicyos.
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