Los Angeles herald., 1908-08-02
COPYRIGHT BY JAMES ELvERsoNJ

certain amount of intelligence. For instance,
it will crawl many feet over the ground m m
order to search a tree or shrub ana WIZ lt
then begin to wind and wind, sending out
dozens of branches which in turn start 9ue
on tramping expeditions, reaching out thls
way and that in the hope of finding something
else to assist them in reaching up as b lar az
possible toward the sun. When brancn
OF the morning glory reaches out a certain am
distance and being blind. lind nothing
on which to cling, will droop and die, but
at the same time will send out another brancn
in a different direction and continue dong
the same thing over and over until It hnds
that which it seeks. The ivy is another ex-
ample of this sort of thing, but being OF
more gentlemanly disposition than the morning
glory, the ivy possesses more lntelllgenee'
When an ivy is climbing the wall OF a house
It will reach around the corner and hnally
clutch the other wall and continue until IL
covers the entire house. But the most wonder
full act of the ivy is when, it goess. across an
omen space to another wall. Ordinarily tne
Wv upon reaching the end of the wall, VIII
send out shoots say about two feet IN length;
These shoots failing to find another wall WI, u,
droop and die while the man pranen VIII VIII
go a foot higher up the wall ana senu ,,;li UHi
more shoots These scouting branches WI
reach out say two feet and no further pus
suppose man builds another wall three feee
away, these shoots which have meyer peIoIe
gone any more than two feet VIII su9dleniy
erow quickly and make it three feet wlthou'
Rut the clematis is still more intelligent,
mt necessarily in the matter OF climbing, put
in the manner in which it takes care 10 see
that it will not fall after it once goes up.
The clematis is heavier thaa most chmping
plants, and sends out branch every le"
inches to clutch at some support, usually
string. These feelers go out and feel ID every
direction until they find the string, ana once '.
found they do not lose it; IN tact, tney Try
to make safety for the parent plant apsoiute-
certain, and in so doing actually tie khot
around the support st, ;: &c
the most wonderful things to be found IN the
garden. On the end of the branch that is
sent out is a tiny leaf which goes coupe
of times around the string, then drops ooWn,
curls under and comes up IN sucn way
that very fine knot is tied. The plant tnen
tightenssa sand it is almost Impossible tor you 70
get it away from the sLI1De "lenou' oSs'i''
ing the branch
This is most wonderful, yet the clematis has
another way of showing that it appears, to
reason. You would think that the feeilng
shoots would excitedlv grab and hold on to
anything Put string where they can reaen ii
it, and in very few minutes the leaf Will
begin to curl around, the first act In tying the
knot. Put another plant, an ivy branch OF
any other branch within reaching distance,
and the clematis will Immediately start to tie
itself secured But put lower clematis shoot
on the stem of the shoot above. and even II
it rests there for week it will not make
any attempt to tie knot, apparently know
ing there is no sense in tying its own branch
es together On the other hand, put. two
clematis vines together, and they viii tie
knots in every branch that shoots out, but
will under no circumstances tie knots around
anv of their brother branches.
The leaves of some plants act without any
visible or material agency, of which the Hedy-
sarum gyrans is a striking instance, requiring