Botany; Geotropism; Plants -- Irritability and movements
As the hypocotyls and epicotyls of some plants protrude from the
seed-coats in an arched form, it is doubtful whether the arching of
these parts, which is invariably present when they break through the
ground, ought always to be attributed to epinasty; but when they are at
first straight and afterwards become arched, as often happens, the
arching is certainly due to epinasty. As long as the arch is surrounded
by compact earth it must retain its form; but as soon as it rises above
the surface, or even before this period if artificially freed from the
surrounding pressure, it begins to straighten itself, and this no doubt
is mainly due to hyponasty. The movement of the upper and lower half of
the arch, and of the crown, was occasionally traced; and the course was
more or less zigzag, showing modified circumnutation.
With not a few plants, especially climbers, the summit of the shoot is
hooked, so that the apex points vertically downwards. In seven genera
of twining plants[3] the hooking, or as it has been called by Sachs,
the nutation of the tip, is mainly due to an exaggerated form of
circumnutation. That is, the growth is so great along one side that it
bends the shoot completely over to the opposite side, thus forming a
hook; the longitudinal line or zone of growth then travels a little
laterally round the shoot, and the hook points in a slightly different
direction, and so onwards until the hook is completely reversed.
Ultimately it
comes back to the point whence it started. This was ascertained by
painting narrow lines with Indian ink along the convex surface of
several hooks, and the line was found slowly to become at first
lateral, then to appear along the concave surface, and ultimately back
again on the convex surface. In the case of Lonicera brachypoda the
hooked terminal part of the revolving shoot straightens itself
periodically, but is never reversed; that is, the periodically
increased growth of the concave side of the hook is sufficient only to
straighten it, and not to bend it over to the opposite side. The
hooking of the tip is of service to twining plants by aiding them to
catch hold of a support, and afterwards by enabling this part to
embrace the support much more closely than it could otherwise have done
at first, thus preventing it, as we often observed, from being blown
away by a strong wind. Whether the advantage thus gained by twining
plants accounts for their summits being so frequently hooked, we do not
know, as this structure is not very rare with plants which do not
climb, and with some climbers (for instance, Vitis, Ampelopsis, Cissus,
etc.) to whom it does not afford any assistance in climbing.
[3] ‘The Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants,’ 2nd edit. p. 13.
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