Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, December 1898: Volume LIV, No. 2, December 1898 — John Shaqi
Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, December 1898: Volume LIV, No. 2, December 1898Various
Science
Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, December 1898: Volume LIV, No. 2, December 1898
Various
Science -- Periodicals; Technology -- Periodicals
After the stems emerge from the "drawn" buds they show a similar
attenuation, attaining a length of twice the normal. The excessive
elongation of stems is accompanied by variations in the structure and
contents of the tissues. The cells are generally longer, while the
walls are thinner. In consequence, organs grown in darkness are very
weak and easily bent or broken. Growth in darkness is attended by the
non-formation of chlorophyll. This is replaced by etiolin, giving the
plant a pale, waxy, yellow appearance.
The adaptive elongation is not shown by all species, however. It
has been found that stems of beet, hop, dioscorea, and a few others
show no adaptations to diminished light. The adaptive modification
of stems elongating in darkness is developed from the retarding
influence exercised by light upon growth. Thus it is a well-known
fact that the action of certain portions of the sun's rays actually
impedes or checks the increase in volume known as growth, though it
does not influence actual division of the cells to any great extent.
When this retarding action is eliminated excessive elongation ensues.
The behavior of leaves in illuminations below the normal depends upon
the relation of these organs to the storage structures of the plant
as well as upon other factors, and many types are dependent upon
their own activity for plastic material necessary for growth.
It is to be said in general that leaves of dicotyledonous plants are
incapable of full development in darkness, though to this rule there
are many exceptions. Thus the leaves of the beet develop normally, or
nearly so, in darkness.
On the other hand, leaves of monocotyledonous plants attain normal
size in darkness, especially those with straight or curved parallel
venation. Some, as the iris, swamp marigold, and onion, attain a
greater length in darkness than in light. Here, as in stems, cell
division is not modified, but the growth of the individual cell is
increased.
The growth of leaves in darkness may be easily observed if the
underground perennial stems of common mandrake are placed in a dark
chamber before the growth of the leaf buds has begun. The leaves
are peltate, and in the bud are folded about the end of the petiole
after the manner of an umbrella. Usually this umbrella expands as
soon as it has pushed upward and become free from the soil, attaining
a diameter of twenty-five to forty centimetres when outspread. In
darkness, however, it refuses to unfold, the laminæ are pale yellow
and retain the crumpled form of the bud, and as the petiole shows
an exaggerated elongation the organ takes on the appearance of a
very small parasol on a very long handle. The imperfect development
of leaves and the rapid decay of aërial organs deprived of sunlight
leads to the conclusion that the action of light is necessary to the
health and normal activity of these organs, and the light therefore
exercises a _tonic_ influence upon vegetation.
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