Life Movements in Plants, Volume IBose, Jagadis Chandra
Science
Life Movements in Plants, Volume I
Bose, Jagadis Chandra
Growth (Plants); Plants -- Irritability and movements
_Experiment 1._--Believing the phenomenon to be universal I
experimented with a different Date Palm that was growing at my research
station at Sijbaria on the Ganges, situated at a distance of about 200
miles from Faridpur. The surrounding conditions were very different.
The tree was much younger; it was 2 metres in height and inclined
20° to the vertical. The curve obtained with this tree (Fig. 4) was
very similar to that of the Faridpur Palm, though this extent to the
movement was much reduced. The tree attained the highest erect position
at 7-15 A.M. and the lowest at 3-45 P.M. Hence the movement of the
Faridpur Palm is not a solitary phenomenon.
THE CAUSE OF PERIODIC MOVEMENT.
The recurrent daily movement of the tree must be due to some diurnal
changes in the environment,--either the recurrent changes of light
and darkness, or the diurnal changes of temperature. These changes
synchronise to a certain extent; for, as the sun rises, light appears
and the temperature begins to rise. It is therefore difficult to
discriminate the effect of light from that of temperature. The only
satisfactory method of discrimination would have been in the erection
of a large structure with screens to cut off light. The effect
of fluctuation of temperature under constant darkness would have
demonstrated the effect of one agent without complication arising from
the other. Unfortunately screening the tree was impracticable. I shall
presently describe other experiments where the action of light was
completely excluded.
The curve of movement of the tree, however, affords us material
for correct inference as regards the relative effects of light and
temperature. The experiment was commenced in March; light appeared
at about 5 A.M., the sunrise being at 6-15 A.M.; the sun set at 6-15
P.M., and it became dark by 7 P.M. The incident light would be the
most intense at about noon; after this it would decline continuously
till night time. If the movement was due to light, its climax, either
in up or down movement, would be reached at or about noon, and the
opposite climax at midnight. But instead of this we find (Fig. 3)
the up-movement reaching its highest point not at noon, but at 7 in
the morning; after this the fall is rapid and continuous, and the
lowest position was reached not in the evening but at 3-15 P.M. The
fluctuation of light has, therefore, little to do with the movement of
the tree.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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