The Power of Movement in Plants - Charles Darwin

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still arched and buried beneath the ground, and whilst breaking through it.—According to the position in which a seed may chance to have been buried, the arched hypocotyl or epicotyl will begin to protrude in a horizontal, a more or less inclined, or in a vertical plane. Except when already standing vertically upwards, both legs of the arch are acted on from the earliest period by apogeotropism. Consequently they both bend upwards until the arch becomes vertical. During the whole of this process, even before the arch has broken through the ground, it is continually trying to circumnutate to a slight extent; as it likewise does if it happens at first to stand vertically up—all which cases have been observed and described, more or less fully, in the last chapter. After the arch has grown to some [page 99] height upwards the basal part ceases to circumnutate, whilst the upper part continues to do so.

      That an arched hypocotyl or epicotyl, with the two legs fixed in the ground, should be able to circumnutate, seemed to us, until we had read Prof. Wiesner's observations, an inexplicable fact. He has shown* in the case of certain seedlings, whose tips are bent downwards (or which nutate), that whilst the posterior side of the upper or dependent portion grows quickest, the anterior and opposite side of the basal portion of the same internode grows quickest; these two portions being separated by an indifferent zone, where the growth is equal on all sides. There may be even more than one indifferent zone in the same internode; and the opposite sides of the parts above and below each such zone grow quickest. This peculiar manner of growth is called by Wiesner "undulatory nutation." Circumnutation depends on one side of an organ growing quickest (probably preceded by increased turgescence), and then another side, generally almost the opposite one, growing quickest. Now if we look at an arch like this [upside down U] and suppose the whole of one side—we will say the whole convex side of both legs—to increase in length, this would not cause the arch to bend to either side. But if the outer side or surface of the left leg were to increase in length the arch would be pushed over to the right, and this would be aided by the inner side of the right leg increasing in length. If afterwards the process were reversed, the arch would be pushed over to the opposite or left side, and so on alternately—that is, it would circumnutate. As an arched hypo-

      * 'Die undulirende Nutation der Internodien,' Akad. der Wissench. (Vienna), Jan. 17th, 1878. Also published separately, see p. 32. [page 100]

      cotyl, with the two legs fixed in the ground, certainly circumnutates, and as it consists of a single internode, we may conclude that it grows in the manner described by Wiesner. It may be added, that the crown of the arch does not grow, or grows very slowly, for it does not increase much in breadth, whilst the arch itself increases greatly in height.

      The circumnutating movements of arched hypocotyls and epicotyls can hardly fail to aid them in breaking through the ground, if this be damp and soft; though no doubt their emergence depends mainly on the force exerted by their longitudinal growth. Although the arch circumnutates only to a slight extent and probably with little force, yet it is able to move the soil near the surface, though it may not be able to do so at a moderate depth. A pot with seeds of Solanum palinacanthum, the tall arched hypocotyls of which had emerged and were growing rather slowly, was covered with fine argillaceous sand kept damp, and this at first closely surrounded the bases of the arches; but soon a narrow open crack was formed round each of them, which could be accounted for only by their having pushed away the sand on all sides; for no such cracks surrounded some little sticks and pins which had been driven into the sand. It has already been stated that the cotyledons of Phalaris and Avena, the plumules of Asparagus and the hypocotyls of Brassica, were likewise able to displace the same kind of sand, either whilst simply circumnutating or whilst bending towards a lateral light.

      As long as an arched hypocotyl or epicotyl remains buried beneath the ground, the two legs cannot separate from one another, except to a slight extent from the yielding of the soil; but as soon as the arch rises above the ground, or at an earlier period if [page 101] the pressure of the surrounding earth be artificially removed, the arch immediately begins to straighten itself. This no doubt is due to growth along the whole inner surface of both legs of the arch; such growth being checked or prevented, as long as the two legs of the arch are firmly pressed together. When the earth is removed all round an arch and the two legs are tied together at their bases, the growth on the under side of the crown causes it after a time to become much flatter and broader than naturally occurs. The straightening process consists of a modified form of circumnutation, for the lines described during this process (as with the hypocotyl of Brassica, and the epicotyls of Vicia and Corylus) were often plainly zigzag and sometimes looped. After hypocotyls or epicotyls have emerged from the ground, they quickly become perfectly straight. No trace is left of their former abrupt curvature, excepting in the case of Allium cepa, in which the cotyledon rarely becomes quite straight, owing to the protuberance developed on the crown of the arch.

      The increased growth along the inner surface of the arch which renders it straight, apparently begins in the basal leg or that which is united to the radicle; for this leg, as we often observed, is first bowed backwards from the other leg. This movement facilitates the withdrawal of the tip of the epicotyl or of the cotyledons, as the case may be, from within the seed-coats and from the ground. But the cotyledons often emerge from the ground still tightly enclosed within the seed-coats, which apparently serve to protect them. The seed-coats are afterwards ruptured and cast off by the swelling of the closely conjoined cotyledons, and not by any movement or their separation from one another.

      Nevertheless, in some few cases, especially with the [page 102] Cucurbitaceae, the seed-coats are ruptured by a curious contrivance, described by M. Flahault.* A heel or peg is developed on one side of the summit of the radicle or base of the hypocotyl; and this holds down the lower half of the seed-coats (the radicle being fixed into the ground) whilst the continued growth of the arched hypocotyl forced upwards the upper half, and tears asunder the seed-coats at one end, and the cotyledons are then easily withdrawn.

      Fig. 62. Cucurbita ovifera: germinating seed, showing the heel or peg projecting on one side from summit of radicle and holding down lower tip of seed-coats, which have been partially ruptured by the growth of the arched hypocotyl.

      The accompanying figure (Fig. 62) will render this description intelligible. Forty-one seeds of Cucurbita ovifera were laid on friable peat and were covered by a layer about an inch in thickness, not much pressed down, so that the cotyledons in being dragged up were subjected to very little friction, yet forty of them came up naked, the seed-coats being left buried in the peat. This was certainly due to the action of the peg, for when it was prevented from acting, the cotyledons, as we shall presently see, were lifted up still enclosed in their seed-coats. They were, however, cast off in the course of two or three days by the swelling of the cotyledons. Until this occurs light is excluded, and the cotyledons cannot decompose carbonic acid; but no one probably would have thought that the advantage thus gained by a little earlier cast-

      * 'Bull. Soc. Bot. de France,' tom. xxiv. 1877, p. 201. [page 103]

      ing off of the seed-coats would be sufficient to account for the development of the peg. Yet according to M. Flahault, seedlings which have been prevented from casting their seed-coats whilst beneath the ground, are inferior to those which have emerged with their cotyledons naked and ready to act.

      The peg is developed with extraordinary rapidity; for it could only just be distinguished in two seedlings, having radicles .35 inch in length, but after an interval of only 24 hours was well developed in both. It is formed, according to Flahault, by the enlargement of the layers of the cortical parenchyma at the base of the hypocotyl. If, however, we judge by the effects of a solution of permanganate of potassium, it is developed on the exact line of junction between the hypocotyl and radicle; for the flat lower surface, as well as the edges, were coloured brown like the radicle; whilst the upper slightly inclined surface was left uncoloured like the hypocotyl, excepting indeed in one out of 33 immersed seedlings in which a large part of the upper surface was coloured brown. Secondary roots sometimes spring from the lower surface of the peg, which thus seems in all respects to partake of the nature of the radicle. The peg is always developed on the side which becomes concave by the arching of the hypocotyl; and it would be of no service if it were formed on any other side. It is also always developed with the flat lower side, which, as just stated, forms a part of the radicle, at right angles to it, and in a horizontal

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