"Constant Reader," Shoemakertown, Pa., asks: "Would you be kind enough to give the reason why the Lima bean and the hop vine climb the pole in opposite directions? No doubt it would be interesting to many readers of the Monthly. If you would be kind enough to answer in the October number, you would great-oblige."

[Some botanists conceive that the primal form of plant life is membranous, and that it coils to make stem. We might then assume a moss to be formed from some such a plant as a marchantia or liverwort, and eventually a more woody stem be developed. This suppositious coiling may be represented by the funnel-form papers coiled up by grocers or confectioners. The plant, of course, continues through life to take the direction marked out for it at the first coil, in whichever direction that may be. It may be supposed that there are structural peculiarities in the seed which make it easier for the first coil to go in one direction, rather than in the other. - Ed. G. M.]