Life Movements in Plants, Volume IIBose, Jagadis Chandra
Science
Life Movements in Plants, Volume II
Bose, Jagadis Chandra
Growth (Plants); Plants -- Irritability and movements
Plant organs exhibit, as we have already seen, a heliotropic curvature
under direct stimulation. Still more interesting is the transmitted
effect of light giving rise to a curvature. Thus if the tip of the
seedling of wheat be exposed to light, the excitation is transmitted
lower down into the region which acts as the responding organ. Growth is
very active in this particular zone, and the change of growth, induced
by the transmitted effect of stimulus, brings about a curvature by which
the tip of the seedling bends towards light. The seedling thus appears
to be differentiated into three physiological zones subserving three
different functions. The tip is the perceptive zone, the intervening
distance between the tip and the growing region is the zone of
conduction, and the growing region is the responsive zone. These
differentiations are shown in a striking manner by certain Paniceae,
_Setaria_ for example. In this seedling the tapering sheathing leaf or
cotyledon is about 5 mm. in length, and it is the upper part of the
cotyledon that is most sensitive to light. Below the sheathing leaf is a
narrow length which will be distinguished as the hypocotyl, and where
growth is very active. The apex of the leaf perceives the stimulus, and
the effect is transmitted to the hypocotyl, which responds by becoming
curved so that the seedling bends towards light.
It is necessary here to make special reference to the confusion that
arises from want of precision in the use of the term stimulus, used
indifferently to denote both the cause and the resulting effect. An
external agent, say light, causes certain excitatory change in the
tissue, and we refer to the agent which induces it, as the _stimulus_.
Thus in the instance cited above, light is the _stimulus_, and it is the
stimulus-effect that is transmitted to a distance. But in physiological
literature no distinction is made between the stimulus and its effect,
hence arises frequent use of the phrase 'transmission of stimulus'. It
is obvious that it is not light but its effect that is transmitted.
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