Also 8 lianne. [The form liane is a. F. liane (1658 liene in Rochefort), supposed to be a deriv. of lier to bind. The form liana is either a latinization of liane, or has arisen from the notion that the word was of Sp. origin.] The name given to the various climbing and twining plants that abound in tropical forests.
[1796. Stedman, Surinam, I. 231. The nebees, called by the French liannes, by the Spaniards bejucos, and in Surinam tay-tay.]
1796. H. Hunter, trans. St.-Pierre’s Stud. Nat. (1799), III. 748. Liannes interwoven from trunk to trunk.
1833. Carlyle, Misc. (1857), IV. 267. Spite of all its brambles and lianas.
1845. Darwin, Voy. Nat., ii. 25. Many of the older trees presented a very curious appearance from the tresses of a liana hanging from their boughs, and resembling bundles of hay.
1885. Lady Brassey, The Trades, 136. Palms of every variety, all covered with gigantic lianes.
1890. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Miner’s Right, xxxvi. 321. A stone bridge … clasped with close lianas.
