Prev | Current Page 109 | Next

"The Power of Movement in Plants"

48. Asparagus officinalis: circumnutation of plumules with tips
whitened and marks placed beneath, traced on a horizontal glass. A, young
plumule; movement traced from 8.30 A.M. Nov. 30th to 7.15 A.M. next
morning; magnified about 35 times. B, older plumule; movement traced from
10.15 A.M. to 8.10 P.M. Nov. 29th; magnified 9 times, but here reduced to
one-half of original scale.
ments of five seedlings, varying in height from .3 inch to 2 inches, were
traced. They were placed within a box and illuminated from above; but in
all five cases the longer axes of the figures described were directed to
nearly the same point; so that more light seemed to have come through the
glass roof of the greenhouse on one side than on any other. All five
tracings resembled each other to a certain extent, and it will suffice to
give two of them. In A (Fig. 48) the seedling was only .45 of an
[page 62]
inch in height, and consisted of a single internode bearing a bud on its
summit. The apex described between 8.30 A.M. and 10.20 P.M. (i.e. during
nearly 14 hours) a figure which would probably have consisted of 3 ?
ellipses, had not the stem been drawn to one side until 1 P.


Pages:
97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121