Life Movements in Plants, Volume IBose, Jagadis Chandra
Science
Life Movements in Plants, Volume I
Bose, Jagadis Chandra
Growth (Plants); Plants -- Irritability and movements
This will be better understood if I refer once more to certain
characteristics in the movement of the “Praying” Palm. The neck of
the tree was seen to be concave in the morning. The physiological
effect of raising temperature is virtually to oppose or neutralise the
geotropic curvature as seen in the flattening or slight reversal of
curvature in the afternoon. Similarly, various plant organs, growing at
an inclination to the vertical, are subjected to geotropic action, and
thus assume different characteristic angles. This state of equilibrium
is not static but may better be described as dynamic; for it will be
shown that this state of geotropic balance is upset in a definite way,
by variation of temperature.
That geotropism is an important factor in the diurnal movement is
supported by the fact that the Sijbaria Palm with an inclination of 20°
to the vertical exhibited a daily movement which was only moderate
in extent. But the Faridpur Palm growing at an inclination of 60° was
subjected more effectively to geotropic action, and exhibited movements
which were far more pronounced. I shall now proceed to describe crucial
experiments which will demonstrate the effect of change of temperature
on geotropic curvature.
EFFECT OF VARIATION OF TEMPERATURE ON GEOTROPIC CURVATURE.
In the instances of diurnal movement already described the trees or
their leaves were already at an inclination to the vertical. I now took
a radial and erect shoot of _Basella cordifolia_ growing in a pot and
laid it horizontally for two weeks. The procumbent stem curved up and
attained a state of equilibrium under the action of geotropic stimulus.
_Diurnal curve of_ Basella cordifolia: _Experiment 7._--The plant
was completely immersed in a vessel of water, and its diurnal curve
recorded. This resembled in all essentials the diurnal curve of the
Palm; the slight deviation was due to the fact that owing to difference
in the season (August) the temperature maximum was attained at 12-25
P.M. and the minimum at 6 A.M. The geotropic curvature was reduced to
its minimum at the maximum temperature, and _vice versâ_. As in the
case of the Palm so also in the procumbent stem of _Basella_ there was
a physiological lag, which was 50 minutes in the morning and about
the same in the afternoon. The free end of the stem thus exhibited a
diurnal movement up and down. The temperature, as stated before, began
to rise from 6 A.M. and the down-movement commenced 50 minutes later,
_i.e._, at 6-50 A.M. The temperature, after reaching the maximum, began
to fall at 12-25 P.M., and the previous movement of fall of the stem
was arrested and reversed into an erectile movement shortly after 1
P.M. There are thus two “turning points,” one at 7 A.M., and the other
at about 1 P.M.; at these periods the movement of the plant remains
more or less arrested for more than half-an-hour.
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