Botany; Geotropism; Plants -- Irritability and movements
The following chapter is devoted to the circumnutating movements of the
radicles, hypocotyls, and cotyledons of seedling plants; and, when the
cotyledons do not rise above the ground, to the movements of the
epicotyl. But in a future chapter we shall have to recur to the
movements of certain cotyledons which sleep at night.
Brassica oleracea (Cruciferae)’.—Fuller details will be given with
respect to the movements in this case than in any other, as space and
time will thus ultimately be saved.
Radicle.—A seed with the radicle projecting .05 inch was fastened with
shellac to a little plate of zinc, so that the radicle stood up
vertically; and a fine glass filament was then fixed near its base,
that is, close to the seed-coats. The seed was surrounded by little
bits of wet sponge, and the movement of the bead at the end of the
filament was traced (Fig. 1) during sixty hours. In this time the
radicle increased in length from .05 to .11 inch. Had the filament been
attached at first close to the apex of the radicle, and if it could
have remained there all the time, the movement exhibited would have
been much greater, for at the close of our observations the tip,
instead of standing vertically upwards, had become bowed downwards
through geotropism, so as almost to touch the zinc plate. As far as we
could roughly ascertain by measurements made with compasses on other
seeds, the tip alone, for a length of only 2/100 to 3/100 of an inch,
is acted on by geotropism. But the tracing shows that the basal part of
the radicle continued to circumnutate irregularly during the whole
time. The actual extreme amount of movement of the bead at the end of
the filament was nearly .05 inch, but to what extent the movement of
the radicle was magnified by the filament, which was nearly 3/4 inch in
length, it was impossible to estimate.
Fig. 1. Brassica oleracea: circumnutation of radicle, traced on
horizontal glass, from 9 A.M. Jan. 31st to 9 P.M. Feb. 2nd. Movement of
bead at end of filament magnified about 40 times.
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