Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- INTRODUCTION
- CHAPTER I THE CIRCUMNUTATING MOVEMENTS OF SEEDLING PLANTS
- CHAPTER II GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS ON THE MOVEMENTS AND GROWTH OF SEEDLING PLANTS
- CHAPTER III SENSITIVENESS OF THE APEX OF THE RADICLE TO CONTACT AND TO OTHER IRRITANTS
- CHAPTER IV THE CIRCUMNUTATING MOVEMENTS OF THE SEVERAL PARTS OF MATURE PLANTS
- CHAPTER V MODIFIED CIRCUMNUTATION: CLIMBING PLANTS; EPINASTIC AND HYPONASTIC MOVEMENTS
- CHAPTER VI MODIFIED CIRCUMNUTATION: SLEEP OR NYCTITROPIC MOVEMENTS, THEIR USE: SLEEP OF COTYLEDONS
- CHAPTER VII MODIFIED CIRCUMNUTATION: NYCTITROPIC OR SLEEP MOVEMENTS OF LEAVES
- CHAPTER VIII MODIFIED CIRCUMNUTATION: MOVEMENTS EXCITED BY LIGHT
- CHAPTER IX SENSITIVENESS OF PLANTS TO LIGHT: ITS TRANSMITTED EFFECTS
- CHAPTER X MODIFIED CIRCUMNUTATION: MOVEMENTS EXCITED BY GRAVITATION
- CHAPTER XI LOCALISED SENSITIVENESS TO GRAVITATION, AND ITS TRANSMITTED EFFECTS
- CHAPTER XII SUMMARY AND CONCLUDING REMARKS
- INDEX
INTRODUCTION
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 August 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- INTRODUCTION
- CHAPTER I THE CIRCUMNUTATING MOVEMENTS OF SEEDLING PLANTS
- CHAPTER II GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS ON THE MOVEMENTS AND GROWTH OF SEEDLING PLANTS
- CHAPTER III SENSITIVENESS OF THE APEX OF THE RADICLE TO CONTACT AND TO OTHER IRRITANTS
- CHAPTER IV THE CIRCUMNUTATING MOVEMENTS OF THE SEVERAL PARTS OF MATURE PLANTS
- CHAPTER V MODIFIED CIRCUMNUTATION: CLIMBING PLANTS; EPINASTIC AND HYPONASTIC MOVEMENTS
- CHAPTER VI MODIFIED CIRCUMNUTATION: SLEEP OR NYCTITROPIC MOVEMENTS, THEIR USE: SLEEP OF COTYLEDONS
- CHAPTER VII MODIFIED CIRCUMNUTATION: NYCTITROPIC OR SLEEP MOVEMENTS OF LEAVES
- CHAPTER VIII MODIFIED CIRCUMNUTATION: MOVEMENTS EXCITED BY LIGHT
- CHAPTER IX SENSITIVENESS OF PLANTS TO LIGHT: ITS TRANSMITTED EFFECTS
- CHAPTER X MODIFIED CIRCUMNUTATION: MOVEMENTS EXCITED BY GRAVITATION
- CHAPTER XI LOCALISED SENSITIVENESS TO GRAVITATION, AND ITS TRANSMITTED EFFECTS
- CHAPTER XII SUMMARY AND CONCLUDING REMARKS
- INDEX
Summary
The chief object of the present work is to describe and connect together several large classes of movement, 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 successively to all points of the compass, so that the tip revolves. This movement has been called by Sachs “revolving nutation;” but we have found it much more convenient to use the terms circumnutation and circumnutate. 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; and 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 stem is always growing upwards, a circular spiral. But it generally describes irregular elliptical or oval figures; for the apex, after pointing in any one direction, commonly moves back to the opposite side, not, however, returning along the same line. Afterwards other irregular ellipses or ovals are successively described, with their longer axes directed to different points of the compass.
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- Information
- The Power of Movement in Plants , pp. 1 - 9Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009First published in: 1880