Life Movements in Plants, Volume IIBose, Jagadis Chandra
Science
Life Movements in Plants, Volume II
Bose, Jagadis Chandra
Growth (Plants); Plants -- Irritability and movements
Microscopic examination showed that the electric maxima in _Bryophyllum_
coincided with the diametrically opposite points in the continuous
endodermic ring. In _Bryophyllum_ as in _Nymphæa_, the excitatory
galvanometric negativity of the upper geo-perceptive layer is greater
than the induced positivity of the lower layer in the ratio of about
2:1. But in a depressed condition of the tissue, the excitatory reaction
is the first to disappear and the positive reaction persists, though
with diminished intensity.
The geo-electric distribution in vigorous specimens seems to indicate
that under the stimulus of gravity a marked excitatory reaction
(contraction) takes place in the layer of cells contiguous to the upper
geo-perceptive layer, and, a less marked positive reaction (expansion)
occurs in layers contiguous to the lower perceptive layer.
It is remarkable that physiological reaction of opposite kinds should
occur on the upper and lower sides of an organ under the identical
stimulus of gravity. The difference of reaction may conceivably be
connected with the fact that the vertical lines of gravity enter by the
upper, and leave by the lower side of the organ. The statolithic
particles rest on the inner tangential walls of the perceptive cells of
the upper layer, and on the outer tangential walls of the lower layer.
Similar difference of physiological reactions of a polar character are
also known in responses of plants under the action of an identical
electric current; here with different ionic distributions, contraction
takes place at the kathode, and expansion at the anode.
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