Power of Movement in Plants - Tapa dura

INTRODuc'rIQN. THE chief object of the present work is to describe and connect together several large classos of move~ ment, common to almost all plants. The most widely prevalent movement is essentially of the same nature as that of the stem of a climbing plant, which bends ~uccessively to all points of the compass, so that the tip revolyes. This movement has been called by Sachs H l'evolving nutation;" but we have found it much more convenient to use the terms circumnutation and circum-nutate. As we shall have to say much about this movement, it will be useful here briefly to describe its nature. If we observe a circumnutating stem, which happens at the time to be bent, we will say towards the north, it will be found gradually to bend more and more easterly, until it faces the east; a.nd so onwards to the south, then to the west, and back again to the north. If the movement had been quite regular, the apex would have described a circle, or rather, as the st.em i

Table of Contents

J NTRODUCTION •• •• Page 1-9; CHAPTER I; TilE Cmc'UMNuTATING 1IoVEMENTS OF SEEDLING PLA~'TS; Brassica oleracea, ci rcumnu tn tiou of the radicle, of the arch ed hy pocotyl; whilst still buried beneath the ground, whih,t rising above; the ground and straigbtening itself, and when erect--Circumnutation; of the cotyledons-Rate of movement--Analogous observations; on various organs in species of Githago, GossYJllum,; Oxalis, 'l'ropreolum, Citrus, lEseulus, of severa) Legumin(lus and; Cueurbitaccous genera, Opuntia, I1cliantlnls, Priml1lll, Cyclamen,; Stapelia, Cetinthe, Nolana, Solanum, Beta, Riciuus~ Quercus,; Corylus,Plnlls, Oycas, Canna, Allium, AsparagtlS, Phalaris Zea,; Avena, Nephrodium, nnd ScI