Botany; Geotropism; Plants -- Irritability and movements
Ipomœa purpurea (vel Pharbitis hispida).—The cotyledons behave in all
respects like those of I. caerulea. A seedling with cotyledons .75 inch
in length (measured as before) and 1.65 inch in breadth, having a small
true leaf developed, was placed at 5.30 P.M. on a klinostat in a
darkened box, so that neither weight nor geotropism could act on them.
At 10 P.M. one cotyledon stood at 77° and the other at 82° beneath the
horizon. Before being placed in the klinostat they stood at 15° and 29°
beneath the horizon. The nocturnal position depends chiefly on the
curvature of the petiole close to the blade, but the whole petiole
becomes slightly curved downwards. It deserves notice that seedlings of
this and the last-named species were raised at the end of February and
another lot in the middle of March, and the cotyledons in neither case
exhibited any nyctitropic movement.
Ipomœa bona-nox.—The cotyledons after a few days grow to an enormous
size, those on a young seedling being 3 1/4 inches in breadth. They
were extended horizontally at noon, and at 10 P.M. stood at 63° beneath
the horizon. five days afterwards they were 4½ inches in breadth, and
at night one stood at 64° and the other 48° beneath the horizon. Though
the blades are thin, yet from their great size and from the petioles
being long, we imagined that their depression at night might be
determined by their weight; but when the pot was laid horizontally,
they became curved towards the hypocotyl, which movement could not have
been in the least aided by their weight, at the same time they were
somewhat twisted upwards through apogeotropism. Nevertheless, the
weight of the cotyledons is so far influential, that when on another
night the pot was turned upside down, they were unable to rise and thus
to assume their proper nocturnal position.
Ipomœa coccinea.—The cotyledons whilst young do not sink at night, but
when grown a little older, but still only .4 inch in length (measured
as before) and .82 in breadth, they became greatly depressed. In one
case they were horizontal at noon, and at 10 P.M. one of them stood at
64° and the other at 47° beneath the horizon. The blades are thin, and
the petioles, which become much curved down at night, are short, so
that here weight can hardly have produced any effect. With all the
above species of Ipomœa, when the two cotyledons on the same seedling
were unequally depressed at night, this seemed to depend on the
position which they had held during the day with reference to the
light.
Solanum lycopersicum (Solaneae).—The cotyledons rise so much at night
as to come nearly in contact. Those of ‘S. palinacanthum’ were
horizontal at noon, and by 10 P.M. had risen only 27° 30 minutes; but
on the following morning before it was light they stood at 59° above
the horizon, and in the afternoon of the same day were again
horizontal. The behaviour of the cotyledons of this latter species
seems, therefore, to be anomalous.
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