Life Movements in Plants, Volume IBose, Jagadis Chandra
Science
Life Movements in Plants, Volume I
Bose, Jagadis Chandra
Growth (Plants); Plants -- Irritability and movements
[Illustration: Fig. 7. Diurnal curve of movement of procumbent young
stem of _Mimosa pudica_. Successive dots at intervals of 15 minutes.]
I obtained records of similar diurnal movements with various procumbent
or creeping stems. Figure 7 gives the diurnal record of the procumbent
stem of a young specimen of _Mimosa pudica_.
The experiment that has just been described shows clearly that
geotropic curvatures of stems is opposed, or neutralised to a greater
or less extent, during rise of temperature, and this antagonistic
reaction is removed during the fall of temperature. The diurnal
movement of the plant completely immersed under water shows once more
that transpiration has little to do with the diurnal movement.
REVERSAL OF NATURAL RHYTHM.
The diurnal rhythm of up and down movement in the particular specimen
_Basella_ had become established under the daily variation of
temperature. I now attempted to reverse this rhythm by artificial
variation of temperature. The plant was placed in water in a
rectangular metallic vessel which was placed within a second outer
vessel. The plant could thus be subjected, without any mechanical
disturbance, to variation of temperature, by circulating warm or
cold water in the outer vessel. In order to reverse the natural
rhythm I subjected the plant to the action of falling temperature
at the “turning” point at 7 A.M., at a time when the plant would
have undergone a down-movement under the daily rise of temperature.
Conversely the plant was subjected to the action of rising temperature
at the second “turning” point at 1 P.M. when the movement under diurnal
fall of temperature would have been one of erection.
_Effect of fall of temperature: Experiment 8._--As stated before
the experiment was carried out in the morning; ice cold water was
circulated in the outer chamber, the fall of temperature was in this
case sudden, and there was an almost immediate responsive movement.
This appeared anomalous, since the latent period of response to slow
variation of temperature was found from the diurnal curve to be as long
as 50 minutes.
As a result of further investigations I found that variation of
temperature produces two different effects which may be distinguished
as transient and persistent. Sudden variation of temperature affects
the superficial tissue, and gives rise to a transient reaction,
while it takes a long time for temperature variation to react on the
geotropically active tissue in the interior. The persistent effect
therefore takes place after a latent period from one to three hours
according to the thickness of the plant.
[Illustration: Fig. 8. Reversal of normal rhythm: Erectile response
_Basella_ to gradual fall of temperature.]
[Illustration: Fig. 9. Responsive fall of _Basella_ to gradual rise of
temperature. (Dots at intervals of 5 minutes).]
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