Climbing Fern
CLIMBING FERN [1], the botanical genus Lygodium, with about twenty species, chiefly in the warmer parts of the Old World, of interest from its climbing habit. The plants have a creeping stem, on the upper face of which is borne a row of leaves. Each leaf has a slender stem-like axis, which twines round a support and bears leaflets at intervals; it goes on growing indefinitely. It is a favourite warm greenhouse plant.
[1] The word "climb" (O.E. climban), meaning strictly to ascend (or similarly descend) by progressive self-impulsion, with some apparent degree of laborious effort and by means of contact with the surface traversed, is connected with the same root as in "cleave" and "cling." For Alpine climbing, etc., see Mountaineering.
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
