Botany; Geotropism; Plants -- Irritability and movements
“the act of tending to the centre,” is often used to express the cause
of a body falling, so it will be found convenient occasionally to
employ heliotropism and geotropism, etc., as the cause of the movements
in question.
[5] The highly useful terms of Heliotropism and Geotropism were first
used by Dr. A. B. Frank: see his remarkable ‘Beiträge zur
Pflanzenphysiologie,’ 1868.
The term epinasty is now often used in Germany, and implies that the
upper surface of an organ grows more quickly than the
lower surface, and thus causes it to bend downwards. Hyponasty is the
reverse, and implies increased growth along the lower surface, causing
the part to bend upwards.[6]
[6] These terms are used in the sense given them by De Vries,
‘Würzburg Arbeiten,’ Heft ii 1872, p. 252.
Methods of Observation.—The movements, sometimes very small and
sometimes considerable in extent, of the various organs observed by us,
were traced in the manner which after many trials we found to be best,
and which must be described. Plants growing in pots were protected
wholly from the light, or had light admitted from above, or on one side
as the case might require, and were covered above by a large horizontal
sheet of glass, and with another vertical sheet on one side. A glass
filament, not thicker than a horsehair, and from a quarter to
three-quarters of an inch in length, was affixed to the part to be
observed by means of shellac dissolved in alcohol. The solution was
allowed to evaporate, until it became so thick that it set hard in two
or three seconds, and it never injured the tissues, even the tips of
tender radicles, to which it was applied. To the end of the glass
filament an excessively minute bead of black sealing-wax was cemented,
below or behind which a bit of card with a black dot was fixed to a
stick driven into the ground. The weight of the filament was so slight
that even small leaves were not perceptibly pressed down. another
method of observation, when much magnification of the movement was not
required, will presently be described. The bead and the dot on the card
were viewed through the horizontal or vertical glass-plate (according
to the position of the object), and when one exactly covered the other,
a dot was made on the glass-plate with a sharply pointed stick dipped
in thick Indian-ink. Other dots were made at short intervals of time
and these were afterwards joined by straight lines. The figures thus
traced were therefore angular; but if dots had been made every 1 or 2
minutes, the lines would have been more curvilinear, as occurred when
radicles were allowed to trace their own courses on smoked
glass-plates. To make the dots accurately was the sole difficulty, and
required some practice. Nor could this be done quite accurately, when
the movement was much magnified, such as 30 times and upwards; yet even
in this case the general course may be trusted. To test the accuracy of
the above method of observation, a filament was fixed to an
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