Botany; Geotropism; Plants -- Irritability and movements
apex; that healthy radicles should be selected and kept at not too high
or too low a temperature, and apparently that the trials should not be
made in the middle of the winter.
In ten instances, radicles which had curved away from a square of card
or other object attached to their tips, straightened themselves to a
certain extent, or even completely, in the course of from one to two
days from the time of attachment. This was more especially apt to occur
when the curvature was slight. But in one instance (No. 27) a radicle
which in 9 h. had been deflected about 90° from the perpendicular,
became quite straight in 24 h. from the period of attachment. With No.
26, the radicle was almost straight in 48 h. We at first attributed the
straightening process to the radicles becoming accustomed to a slight
stimulus, in the same manner as a tendril or sensitive petiole becomes
accustomed to a very light loop of thread, and unbends itself though
the loop remains still suspended; but Sachs states[2] that radicles of
the bean placed horizontally in damp air after curving downwards
through geotropism, straighten themselves a little by growth along
their lower or concave sides. Why this should occur is not clear: but
perhaps it likewise occurred in the above ten cases. There is another
occasional movement which must not be passed over: the tip of the
radicle, for a length of from 2 to 3 mm., was found in six instances,
after an interval of about 24 or more hours, bent towards the bit of
still attached card,—that is, in a direction exactly opposite to the
previously induced curvature of the whole growing part for a length of
from 7 to 8 mm. This occurred chiefly when the first curvature was
small, and when an object had been affixed more than once to the apex
of the same radicle. The attachment of a bit of card by shellac to one
side of the tender apex may sometimes mechanically prevent its growth;
or the application of thick gum-water more than once to the same side
may injure it; and then checked growth on this side with continued
growth on the opposite and unaffected side would account for the
reversed curvature of the apex.
[2] ‘Arbeiten Bot. Instit., Würzburg,’ Heft iii. p. 456.
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