Botany; Geotropism; Plants -- Irritability and movements
Fig. 4. Brassica oleracea: circumnutating movement of buried and arched
hypocotyl, with the two legs of the arch tied together, traced on
horizontal glass during 33½ hours. Movement of the bead of filament
magnified about 26 times, and here reduced to one-half original scale.
Before the above observations were made, some arched hypocotyls buried
at the depth of a quarter of an inch were uncovered; and in order to
prevent the two legs of the arch from beginning to separate at once,
they were tied together with fine silk. This was done partly because we
wished to ascertain how long the hypocotyl, in its arched condition,
would continue to move, and whether the movement when not masked and
disturbed by the straightening process, indicated circumnutation.
Firstly a filament was fixed to the basal leg of an arched hypocotyl
close above the summit of the radicle. The cotyledons were still
partially enclosed within the seed-coats. The movement was traced (Fig.
4) from 9.20 A.M. on Dec.
23rd to 6.45 A.M. on Dec. 25th. No doubt the natural movement was much
disturbed by the two legs having been tied together; but we see that it
was distinctly zigzag, first in one direction and then in an almost
opposite one. After 3 P.M. on the 24th the arched hypocotyl sometimes
remained stationary for a considerable time, and when moving, moved far
slower than before. Therefore, on the morning of the 25th, the glass
filament was removed from the base of the basal leg, and was fixed
horizontally on the summit of the arch, which, from the legs having
been tied, had grown broad and almost flat. The movement was now traced
during 23 hours (Fig. 5), and we see that the course was still zigzag,
which indicates a tendency to circumnutation. The base of the basal leg
by this time had almost completely ceased to move.
Fig. 5. Brassica oleracea: circumnutating movement of the crown of a
buried and arched hypocotyl, with the two legs tied together, traced on
a horizontal glass during 23 hours. Movement of the bead of the
filament magnified about 58 times, and here reduced to one-half
original scale.
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