Botany; Geotropism; Plants -- Irritability and movements
Turning now to very young seedlings, the cotyledons of which do not
rise at night and are only from 2 to 2½ mm. in length, their petioles
do not exhibit any defined zone of small cells, destitute of
chlorophyll and differing in shape exteriorly from the lower ones.
Nevertheless, the cells at the place where a pulvinus will afterwards
be developed are smaller (being on an average .015 mm. in length) than
those in the lower parts of the same petiole, which gradually become
larger in proceeding downwards, the largest being .030 mm. in length.
At this early age the cells of the blade are about .027 mm. in length.
We thus see that the pulvinus is formed by the cells in the uppermost
part of the petiole, continuing for only a short time to increase in
length, then being arrested in their growth, accompanied by the loss of
their chlorophyll grains; whilst the cells in the lower part of the
petiole continue for a long time to increase in length, those of the
epidermis becoming more conical. The singular fact of the cotyledons of
this plant not sleeping at first is therefore due to the pulvinus not
being developed at an early age.
We learn from these two cases of Lotus and Oxalis, that the development
of a pulvinus follows from the growth of the cells over a small defined
space of the petiole being almost arrested at an early age. With Lotus
Jacobæus the cells at first increase a little in length; in Oxalis
corniculata they decrease a little, owing to self-division. A mass of
such small cells forming a pulvinus, might therefore be either acquired
or lost without any special difficulty, by different species in the
same natural genus: and we know that
with seedlings of Trifolium, Lotus, and Oxalis some of the species have
a well-developed pulvinus, and others have none, or one in a
rudimentary condition. As the movements caused by the alternate
turgescence of the cells in the two halves of a pulvinus, must be
largely determined by the extensibility and subsequent contraction of
their walls, we can perhaps understand why a large number of small
cells will be more efficient than a small number of large cells
occupying the same space. As a pulvinus is formed by the arrestment of
the growth of its cells, movements dependent on their action may be
long-continued without any increase in length of the part thus
provided; and such long-continued movements seem to be one chief end
gained by the development of a pulvinus. Long-continued movement would
be impossible in any part, without an inordinate increase in its
length, if the turgescence of the cells was always followed by growth.
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