Life Movements in Plants, Volume IIBose, Jagadis Chandra
Science
Life Movements in Plants, Volume II
Bose, Jagadis Chandra
Growth (Plants); Plants -- Irritability and movements
Returning to the investigation on electric response to geotropic
stimulus, the specimen of plant is at first held erect; two electrodes
connected with a sensitive galvanometer are applied, one to an
indifferent point, and the other to one side of the shoot. The
sensitiveness of the galvanometer was such that a current of one
millionth of an ampere produced a deflection of the reflected spot of
light through 1,000 divisions of the scale. An action current is
produced on displacement of the plant from vertical to horizontal
position.
_Non-polarisable electrodes._--The electrical connections with the plant
are usually made by means of non-polarisable electrodes (amalgamated
zinc rod in zinc-sulphate solution and kaolin paste with normal saline).
I at first used this method and obtained all the results which will be
presently described. But the employment of the usual non-polarisable
electrodes with liquid electrolyte is, for our present purpose,
extremely inconvenient in practice; for the plant-holder with the
electrodes has to be rotated from vertical to horizontal through 90°.
The reliability of the non-polarisable electrode, moreover, is not above
criticism. The zinc-sulphate solution percolates through the kaolin
paste and ultimately comes in contact with the plant, and seriously
affects its excitability. The name non-polarisable electrode is in
reality a misnomër; for the action current (whose polarising effect
is to be guarded against) is excessively feeble, being of the order of a
millionth of an ampere or even less; the counter polarisation induced by
such a feeble current is practically negligible.
The idea that non-polarisable electrodes are meant to get rid of
polarisation is not thus justified by the facts of the case. The real
reason for its use is very different; the electrical connections with
the plant has to be made ultimately by means of two metal contacts. If
we take two pieces of metal even from the same sheet, and put them in
connection with the plant, a voltaic couple is produced owing to slight
physical differences between the two electrodes. Amalgamation of the two
zinc rods with mercury reduces the electric difference but cannot
altogether eliminate it.
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