Botany; Geotropism; Plants -- Irritability and movements
On another night two pots with several plants were exposed for between
35 m. and 40 m. to a clear sky, and perhaps to a rather lower
temperature, for a thermometer on a dial, 3 feet high, close by stood
at –3.3° to –3.8° C. In one pot three leaves were pinned open, and all
were badly injured; of the 44 free leaves, 26 were injured, that is, 59
per cent. In the other pot 3 leaves were pinned open and all were
killed; four other leaves were prevented from sleeping by narrow strips
of stiff paper gummed across them, and all were killed; of 24 free
leaves, 10 were killed, 2 much injured, and 12 unhurt; that is, 50 per
cent. of the free leaves were either killed or much injured. Taking the
two pots together, we may say that rather more than half of the free
leaves, which were asleep, were either killed or injured, whilst all
the ten horizontally extended leaves, which had been prevented from
going to sleep, were either killed or much injured.
Cassia floribunda.—A bush was exposed at night for 40 m. to a clear
sky, the temperature on the surrounding grass being –2° C., and not a
leaf was injured.[11] It was again exposed on
another night for 1 h., when the temperature of the grass was –4° C.;
and now all the leaves on a large bush, whether pinned flat open or
free, were killed, blackened, and shrivelled, with the exception of
those on one small branch, low down, which was very slightly protected
by the leaves on the branches above. Another tall bush, with four of
its large compound leaves pinned out horizontally, was afterwards
exposed (temp. of surrounding grass exactly the same, viz., –4° C.),
but only for 30 m. On the following morning every single leaflet on
these four leaves was dead, with both their upper and lower surfaces
completely blackened. Of the many free leaves on the bush, only seven
were blackened, and of these only a single one (which was a younger and
more tender leaf than any of the pinned ones) had both surfaces of the
leaflets blackened. The contrast in this latter respect was well shown
by a free leaf, which stood between two pinned-open ones; for these
latter had the lower surfaces of their leaflets as black as ink, whilst
the intermediate free leaf, though badly injured, still retained a
plain tinge of green on the lower surface of the leaflets. This bush
exhibited in a striking manner the evil effects of the leaves not being
allowed to assume at night their normal dependent position; for had
they all been prevented from doing so, assuredly every single leaf on
the bush would have been utterly killed by this exposure of only 30 m.
The leaves whilst sinking downwards in the evening twist round, so that
the upper surface is turned inwards, and is thus better protected than
the outwardly turned lower surface. Nevertheless, it was always the
upper surface which was more blackened than the lower, whenever any
difference could be perceived between them; but whether this was due to
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