Botany; Geotropism; Plants -- Irritability and movements
We believe that the leaflets, especially the two lateral ones, in
performing the above described complicated movements generally bend a
little downwards; but we are not sure of this, for, as far as the main
petiole is concerned, its nocturnal movement is largely determined by
the position which the leaf happens to occupy during the day. Thus one
main petiole was observed to rise at night 59°, whilst three others
rose only 7° and 9°. The petioles and sub-petioles are continually
circumnutating during the whole 24 h., as we shall presently see.
The leaves of the following 15 species, M. officinalis, suaveolens,
parviflora, alba, infesta, dentata, gracilis, sulcata, elegans,
coerulea, petitpierreana, macrorrhiza, Italica, secundiflora, and
Taurica, sleep in nearly the same manner as just described; but the
bending to one side of the terminal leaflet is apt to fail unless the
plants are growing vigorously. With M. petitpierreana and secundiflora
the terminal leaflet was rarely seen to bend to one side. In young
plants of M. Italica it bent in the usual manner, but with old plants
in full flower, growing in the same pot and observed at the same hour,
viz., 8.30 P.M., none of the terminal leaflets on several scores of
leaves had bent to one side, though they stood vertically; nor had the
two lateral leaflets, though standing vertically, moved towards the
terminal one. At 10.30 P.M., and again one hour after midnight, the
terminal leaflets had become very slightly bent to one side, and the
lateral leaflets had moved a very little towards the terminal one, so
that the position of the leaflets even at this late hour was far from
the ordinary one. Again, with M. Taurica the terminal leaflets were
never seen to bend towards either of the two lateral leaflets, though
these, whilst becoming vertical, had bent towards the terminal one. The
sub-petiole of the terminal leaflet in this species is of unusual
length, and if the leaflet had bent to one side, its upper surface
could have come into contact only with the apex of either lateral
leaflet; and this, perhaps, is the meaning of the loss of the lateral
movement.
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