Botany; Geotropism; Plants -- Irritability and movements
The cotyledons are in constant movement up and down during the whole
day, and as they offer the unusual case of moving downwards late in the
evening and in the early part of the night, many observations were made
on them. A filament was fixed along the middle of one, and its movement
traced on a vertical glass; but the tracing is not given, as the
hypocotyl was not secured, so that it was impossible to distinguish
clearly between its movement and that of the cotyledon. The cotyledons
rose from 10.30 A.M. to about 3 P.M.; they then sank till 10 P.M.,
rising, however, greatly in the latter part of the night.
The angles above the horizon at which the cotyledons of another
seedling stood at different hours is recorded in the following short
table:—
Oct. 20 2.50 P.M...25° above horizon. Oct. 20 4.20 P.M...22° above
horizon. Oct. 20 5.20 P.M...15° above horizon. Oct. 20 10.40 P.M...8°
above horizon. Oct. 21 8.40 A.M...28° above horizon. Oct. 21 11.15
A.M...35° above horizon. Oct. 21 9.11 P.M...10° below horizon.
The position of the two cotyledons was roughly sketched at various
hours with the same general result.
In the following summer, the hypocotyl of a fourth seedling was secured
to a little stick, and a glass filament with triangles of paper having
been fixed to one of the cotyledons, its movements were traced on a
vertical glass under a double skylight in the house. The first dot was
made at 4.20 P.M. June 20th; and the cotyledon fell till 10.15 P.M. in
a nearly straight line. Just past midnight it was found a little lower
and somewhat to one side. By the early morning, at 3.45 A.M., it had
risen greatly, but by 6.20 A.M. had fallen a little. During the whole
of this day (21st) it fell in a slightly zigzag line, but its normal
course was disturbed by the want of sufficient illumination, for during
the night it rose only a little, and travelled irregularly during the
whole of the following day and night of June 22nd. The ascending and
descending lines traced during the three days did not coincide, so that
the movement was one of circumnutation. This seedling was then taken
back to the hot-house, and after five days was inspected at 10 P.M.,
when the cotyledons were found hanging so nearly vertically down, that
they might justly be said to have been asleep. On the following morning
they had resumed their usual horizontal position.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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