Botany; Geotropism; Plants -- Irritability and movements
Leguminosae.—It may be seen in our list that the cotyledons of several
species in nine genera, widely distributed throughout the Family, sleep
at night; and this probably is the case with many others. The
cotyledons of all these species are provided with a pulvinus; and the
movement in all is continued during many days or weeks. In Cassia the
cotyledons of the ten species in the list rise up vertically at night
and come into close contact with one another. We observed that those of
C. florida opened in the morning rather later than those of C. glauca
and pubescens. The movement is exactly the same in C. mimosoides as in
the other species, though its subsequently developed leaves sleep in a
different manner. The cotyledons of an eleventh species, namely, C.
nodosa, are thick and fleshy, and do not rise up at night. The
circumnutation of the cotyledons during the day of C. tora has been
described in the first chapter. Although the cotyledons of Smithia
sensitiva rose from a horizontal position in the middle of the day to a
vertical one at night, those of S. Pfundii, which are thick and fleshy,
did not sleep. When Mimosa pudica and albida have been kept at a
sufficiently high temperature during the day, the cotyledons come into
close contact at night; otherwise they merely rise up almost
vertically. The circumnutation of those of M. pudica has been
described. The cotyledons of a Bauhinia from St. Catharina in Brazil
stood during the day at an angle of about 50° above the horizon, and at
night rose to 77°; but it is probable that they would have closed
completely, if the seedlings had been kept in a warmer place.
Lotus.—In three species of Lotus the cotyledons were observed to sleep.
Those of L. Jacoboeus present the singular case of not rising at night
in any conspicuous manner for the first 5 or 6 days of their life, and
the pulvinus is not well developed at this period. Afterwards the
sleeping movement is well displayed, though to a variable degree, and
is long continued. We shall hereafter meet with a nearly parallel case
with the leaves of Sida rhombifolia. The cotyledons of L. Gebelii are
only slightly raised at night, and differ much in this respect from the
three species in our list.
Trifolium.—The germination of 21 species was observed. In most of them
the cotyledons rise hardly at all, or only slightly, at night; but
those of T. glomeratum, striatum and incarnactum rose from 45° to 55°
above the horizon. With T. subterraneum, leucanthemum and strictum,
they stood up vertically; and with T. strictum the rising movement is
accompanied, as we shall see, by another movement, which makes us
believe that the rising is truly nyctitropic. We did not carefully
examine the cotyledons of all the species for a pulvinus, but this
organ was distinctly present in those of T. subterraneum and strictum;
whilst there was no trace of a pulvinus in some species, for instance,
in T. resupinatum, the cotyledons of which do not rise at night.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account