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Updated: June 20, 2025
The petioles move spontaneously, and thus, when a shoot attempts to twine round an upright stick, those on both sides after a time come into contact with it, and are excited to bend. Ultimately the two petioles clasp the stick in opposite directions, and the foot-like tendrils, seizing on each other or on their own petioles, fasten the stem to the support with surprising security.
It is indeed in the highest degree improbable that this should occur, for they are generally developed on branches which have already securely clasped a support by the petioles of their leaves; and when borne on a free depending branch, they are not produced by the terminal portion of the internode which alone has the power of revolving; so that they could be brought only by accident into contact with any neighbouring object.
In the finer species they are lanceolate, with a shining surface of bright green, traversed by crimson veins and petioles of the same colour. The flowers are very small, and hang in clustering panicles like lilacs. They are generally of a deep roseate colour, paler near the stalk, and dark crimson within the tube, with white curly hairs bordering the laciniae of the corolla.
The species Musaceae are herbaceous plants only. The outer stem consists of crescent-shaped petioles crossing one another alternately, and encircling the thin main stem. These petioles contain a quantity of bast fiber, which is used as string, but otherwise is of no commercial value.
Its tall trunk, slightly swelled towards the middle, grows to the height of 60 or 80 feet; the upper part is glossy, of a delicate green, newly formed by the closing and dilatation of the petioles, contrasts with the rest, which is whitish and fendilated. It appears like two columns, the one surmounting the other.
The beauty of the drapery of the Pothos-leaves is pre-eminent, whether for the graceful folds the foliage assumes, or for the liveliness of its colour. Araliaceae, with smooth or armed slender trunks, and Mappa-like Euphorbiaceae, spread their long petioles horizontally forth, each terminated with an ample leaf some feet in diameter.
As the sensitiveness is here greater than in any other species of the genus observed by me, and is in itself remarkable, I will give fuller details. Full-grown petioles are not in the least sensitive. A thin stick placed so as to press lightly against a petiole, having a leaflet a quarter of an inch in length, caused the petiole to bend in 3 hrs. 15 m.
The petioles which have clasped some object become much more stiff, hard, and polished than those which have failed in this their proper function. TROPAEOLUM. I observed T. tricolorum, T. azureum, T. pentaphyllum, T. peregrinum, T. elegans, T. tuberosum, and a dwarf variety of, as I believe, T. minus. Tropaeolum tricolorum, var. grandiflorum.
Petioles which have naturally come into contact with a stick, sometimes take two turns round it. After they have clasped a support, they become rigid and hard. Tropaeolum elegans. I did not make many observations on this species. The short and stiff internodes revolve irregularly, describing small oval figures. One oval was completed in 3 hrs.
When thus ascending, it makes no use of its tendrils or petioles; but when it twined round a rather thick stick, and its petioles were brought into contact with it, these curved round the stick, showing that they have some degree of irritability. The petioles also exhibit a slight degree of spontaneous movement; for in one case they certainly described minute, irregular, vertical ellipses.
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