Four leaves were separately immersed as before in a solution of one
part to 131,250 of water (1 gr. to 300 oz.), so that each received
1/4800 of a grain, or .0135 mg. After 50 m. one leaf had all its
tentacles except sixteen, and after 8 hrs. 20 m. all but fourteen,
inflected. The second leaf, after 40 m., had all but twenty inflected;
and after 8 hrs. 10 m. began to re-expand. The third, in 3 hrs. had
about half its tentacles inflected, which began to re-expand after 8
hrs. 15 m. The fourth leaf, after 3 hrs. 7 m., had only twenty-nine
tentacles more or less inflected. Thus three out of the four leaves
were strongly acted on. It is clear that very sensitive leaves had been
accidentally selected. The day moreover was hot. The four corresponding
leaves in water were likewise acted on rather more than is usual; for
after 3 hrs. one had nine tentacles, another four, and another two, and
the fourth none, inflected. With respect to the leaf of which all the
tentacles, except sixteen, were inflected after 50 m., each gland
(assuming that the leaf bore 160 tentacles) could have absorbed only
1/691200 of a grain (.0000937 mg.), and this appears to be about the
least quantity of the nitrate which suffices to induce the inflection
of a single tentacle.
As negative results are important in confirming the foregoing positive
ones, eight leaves were immersed as before, each in thirty minims of a
solution of one part to 175,000 of water (1 gr. to 400 oz.), so that
each received only 1/6400 of a grain (.0101 mg.). This minute quantity
produced a slight effect on only four of the eight leaves. One had
fifty-six tentacles inflected after 2 hrs. 13 m.; a second, twenty-six
inflected, or sub-inflected, after [page 153] 38 m.; a third, eighteen
inflected, after 1 hr.; and a fourth, ten inflected, after 35 m. The
four other leaves were not in the least affected. Of the eight
corresponding leaves in water, one had, after 2 hrs. 10 m., nine
tentacles, and four others from one to four long-headed tentacles,
inflected; the remaining three being unaffected. Hence, the 1/6400 of a
grain given to a sensitive leaf during warm weather perhaps produces a
slight effect; but we must bear in mind that occasionally water causes
as great an amount of inflection as occurred in this last experiment.]