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They swallow an enormous quantity of earth, out of which they extract any digestible matter which it may contain; but to this subject I must recur. They also consume a large number of half-decayed leaves of all kinds, excepting a few which have an unpleasant taste or are too tough for them; likewise petioles, peduncles, and decayed flowers.
The shrub itself seldom rises more than two feet high, is much branched, and has no thorns. The leaves resemble those of the common gooseberry, except in being smaller, and the berry is supported by separate peduncles or foot-stalks half an inch long.
Hen and chicken Daisy; in this beautiful monster not only the impletion or doubling of the petals takes place, as described in the note on Alcea; but a numerous circlet of less flowers on peduncles, or footstalks, rise from the sides of the calyx, and surround the proliferous parent. The same occurs in Calendula, marigold; in Heracium, hawk-weed; and in Scabiosa, Scabious. Phil.
Having selected some stems which had firmly clasped a stick by their petioles, and having placed a bell- glass over them, I traced the movements of the young flower- peduncles. The tracing generally formed a short and extremely irregular line, with little loops in its course.
As the plant had occupied for some time exactly the same position, these movements could not be attributed to any change in the action of the light. Peduncles, old enough for the coloured petals to be just visible, do not move. Next day they were rubbed on the opposite sides, and they became perceptibly curved towards these sides. Subsequently they straightened themselves.
A rigorous examination of other young plants would probably show slight spontaneous movements in their stems, petioles or peduncles, as well as sensitiveness to a touch. There is one other interesting point which deserves notice. We have seen that some tendrils owe their origin to modified leaves, and others to modified flower-peduncles; so that some are foliar and others axial in their nature.
The present species is unique in one respect. This remark, and the fact of the flower-peduncles being decidedly flexuous, led me carefully to examine them. They never act as true tendrils; I repeatedly placed thin sticks in contact with young and old peduncles, and I allowed nine vigorous plants to grow through an entangled mass of branches; but in no one instance did they bend round any object.
An evergreen or sub-evergreen species, growing 3 feet high, with lanceolate leaves on long footstalks, and large, pure white flowers arranged in terminal corymbs, and placed on long peduncles. Germander-leaved Spiraea. South-eastern Europe to Japan, 1789. Grows about a yard high, with ovate, pubescent leaves, and white flowers. It varies widely in the shape and size of leaves.
Flowers small, bright yellow, and produced in few-flowered axillary racemes on short peduncles. The berries are small, globular, and light red. China, 1852. This is a shrub of neat low growth, but it does not appear to be at all plentiful. B. VULGARIS. Common Barberry. This is a native species, with oblong leaves, and terminal, drooping racemes of yellow flowers.
The flower-peduncles, which stand up above the end of the shoot, are carried round and round by the revolving movement of the internodes; and when the stem is securely tied, the long and thin flower- peduncles themselves are seen to be in continued and sometimes rapid movement from side to side. They sweep a wide space, but only occasionally revolve in a regular elliptical course.
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