Botany; Geotropism; Plants -- Irritability and movements
We shall have to recur to the cotyledons of the cabbage in a future
chapter, when we treat of their sleep-movements. The circumnutation,
also, of the leaves of fully-developed plants will hereafter be
described.
Fig. 11. Githago segetum: circumnutation of hypocotyl, traced on a
horizontal glass, by means of a filament fixed transversely across its
summit, from 8.15 A.M. to 12.15 P.M. on the following day. Movement of
bead of filament magnified about 13 times, here reduced to one-half the
original scale.
Githago segetum (Caryophylleae).—A young seedling was dimly illuminated
from above, and the circumnutation of the
hypocotyl was observed during 28 h., as shown in Fig. 11. It moved in
all directions; the lines from right and to left in the figure being
parallel to the blades of the cotyledons. The actual distance travelled
from side to side by the summit of the hypocotyl was about .2 of an
inch; but it was impossible to be accurate on this head, as the more
obliquely the plant was viewed, after it had moved for some time, the
more the distances were exaggerated.
We endeavoured to observe the circumnutation of the cotyledons, but as
they close together unless kept exposed to a moderately bright light,
and as the hypocotyl is extremely heliotropic, the necessary
arrangements were too troublesome. We shall recur to the nocturnal or
sleep-movements of the cotyledons in a future chapter.
Fig. 12. Gossypium: circumnutation of hypocotyl, traced on a horizontal
glass, from 10.30 A.M. to 9.30 A.M. on following morning, by means of a
filament fixed across its summit. Movement of bead of filament
magnified about twice; seedling illuminated from above.
Gossypium (var. Nankin cotton) (Malvaceae).—The circumnutation of a
hypocotyl was observed in the hot-house, but the movement was so much
exaggerated that the bead twice passed for a time out of view. It was,
however, manifest that two somewhat irregular ellipses were nearly
completed in 9 h. Another seedling, 1½ in. in height, was then observed
during 23 h.; but the observations were not made at sufficiently short
intervals, as shown by the few dots in Fig. 12, and the tracing was not
now sufficiently enlarged. Nevertheless there could be no doubt about
the circumnutation of the hypocotyl, which described in 12 h. a figure
representing three irregular ellipses of unequal sizes.
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