Note 10 — Chapter I · Twining Plants.
Reading edition
It is well known that the stems of many plants occasionally become spirally twisted in a monstrous manner; and after my paper was read before the Linnean Society, Dr. Maxwell Masters remarked to me in a letter that “some of these cases, if not all, are dependent upon some obstacle or resistance to their upward growth.” This conclusion agrees with what I have said about the twisting of stems, which have twined round rugged supports; but does not preclude the twisting being of service to the plant by giving greater rigidity to the stem.