Botany; Geotropism; Plants -- Irritability and movements
There are, however, some other sources of doubt with
respect to the sleep of cotyledons. In certain cases, the cotyledons
whilst young diverge during the day to only a very moderate extent, so
that a small rise at night, which we know occurs with the cotyledons of
many plants, would necessarily cause them to assume a vertical or
nearly vertical position at night; and in this case it would be rash to
infer that the movement was effected for any special purpose. On this
account we hesitated long whether we should introduce several
Cucurbitaceous plants into the following list; but from reasons,
presently to be given, we thought that they had better be at least
temporarily included. This same source of doubt applies in some few
other cases; for at the commencement of our observations we did not
always attend sufficiently to whether the cotyledons stood nearly
horizontally in the middle of the day. With several seedlings, the
cotyledons assume a highly inclined position at night during so short a
period of their life, that a doubt naturally arises whether this can be
of any service to the plant. Nevertheless, in most of the cases given
in the following list, the cotyledons may be as certainly said to sleep
as may the leaves of any plant. In two cases, namely with the cabbage
and radish, the cotyledons of which rise almost vertically during the
few first nights of their life, it was ascertained by placing young
seedlings in the klinostat, that the upward movement was not due to
apogeotropism.
The names of the plants, the cotyledons of which stand at night at an
angle of at least 60° with the horizon, are arranged in the appended
list on the same system as previously followed. The numbers of the
Families, and with the Leguminosae the numbers of the Tribes, have been
added to show how widely the plants in question are distributed
throughout the
dicotyledonous series. A few remarks will have to be made about many of
the plants in the list. In doing so, it will be convenient not to
follow strictly any systematic order, but to treat of the Oxalidæ and
the Leguminosae at the close; for in these two Families the cotyledons
are generally provided with a pulvinus, and their movements endure for
a much longer time than those of the other plants in the list.
List of Seedling Plants, the cotyledons of which rise or sink at night
to an angle of at least 60° above or beneath the horizon.
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