Botany; Geotropism; Plants -- Irritability and movements
Dots were made with Indian ink along the midrib of both pulvinated
cotyledons of a rather old seedling of Oxalis Valdiviana; their
distances were repeatedly measured with an eye-piece micrometer during
8 3/4 days, and they did not exhibit the least trace of increase. It is
therefore almost certain that the pulvinus itself was not then growing.
Nevertheless, during this whole time and for ten days afterwards, these
cotyledons rose vertically every night. In the case of some seedlings
raised from seeds purchased under the name of Oxalis floribunda, the
cotyledons continued for a long time to move vertically down at night,
and the movement apparently depended exclusively on the pulvini, for
their petioles were of nearly the same length in young, and in old
seedlings which had produced true leaves. With some species of Cassia,
on the other hand, it was obvious without any measurement that the
pulvinated cotyledons continued to increase greatly in length during
some weeks; so that here the expansion of the cells of the pulvini and
the growth of the petiole were probably combined in causing their
prolonged periodic movements. It was equally evident that the
cotyledons of many plants, not provided with pulvini, increased rapidly
in length; and their periodic movements no doubt were exclusively due
to growth.
In accordance with the view that the periodic movements of all
cotyledons depend primarily on the expansion of the cells, whether or
not followed by growth, we can understand the fact that there is but
little difference in the kind or form of movement in the two sets of
cases. This may be seen by
comparing the diagrams given in the last chapter. Thus the movements of
the cotyledons of Brassica oleracea and of Ipomœa caerulea, which are
not provided with pulvini, are as complex as those of Oxalis and Cassia
which are thus provided. The pulvinated cotyledons of some individuals
of Mimosa pudica and Lotus Jacobæus made only a single oscillation,
whilst those of other individuals moved twice up and down in the course
of 24 hours; so it was occasionally with the cotyledons of Cucurbita
ovifera, which are destitute of a pulvinus. The movements of pulvinated
cotyledons are generally larger in extent than those without a
pulvinus; nevertheless some of the latter moved through an angle of
90°. There is, however, one important difference in the two sets of
cases; the nocturnal movements of cotyledons without pulvini, for
instance, those in the Cruciferae, Cucurbitaceæ, Githago, and Beta,
never last even for a week, to any conspicuous degree. Pulvinated
cotyledons, on the other hand, continue to rise at night for a much
longer period, even for more than a month, as we shall now show. But
the period no doubt depends largely on the temperature to which the
seedlings are exposed and their consequent rate of development.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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