The Power of Movement in Plants, Charles Darwin [the reading list book TXT] 📗

think that some importance may be attributed to the increased force gained by the hypocotyl, epicotyl, or other organ by being at first arched; for both legs of the arch increase in length, and both have points of resistance as long as the tip remains enclosed within the seed-coats; and thus the crown of the arch is pushed up through the earth with twice as much force as that which a straight hypocotyl, etc., could exert. As soon, however, as the upper end has freed itself, all the work has to be done by the basal leg. In the case of the epicotyl of the common bean, the basal leg (the apex having freed itself from the seed-coats) grew upwards with a force sufficient to lift a thin plate of zinc, loaded with 12 ounces. Two more ounces were added, and the 14 ounces were lifted up to a very little height, and then the epicotyl yielded and bent to one side.

 

With respect to the primary cause of the arching process, we long thought in the case of many seedlings that this might be attributed to the manner in which the hypocotyl or epicotyl was packed and curved within the seed-coats; and that the arched shape thus acquired was merely retained until the parts in question reached the surface of the ground. But it is doubtful whether this is the whole of the truth in any case. For instance, with the common bean, the epicotyl or plumule is bowed into an arch whilst breaking through the seed-coats, as shown in Fig. 59 (p. 92). The plumule first protrudes as a solid knob (e in A), which after twenty-four hours’

growth is seen (e in B) to be the crown of an arch. Nevertheless, with several beans which germinated in damp air, and had otherwise been treated in an unnatural manner, little

[page 89]

plumules were developed in the axils of the petioles of both cotyledons, and these were as perfectly arched as the normal plumule; yet they had not been subjected to any confinement or pressure, for the seed-coats were completely ruptured, and they grew in the open air. This proves that the plumule has an innate or spontaneous tendency to arch itself.

 

In some other cases the hypocotyl or epicotyl protrudes from the seed at first only slightly bowed; but the bowing afterwards increases independently of any constraint. The arch is thus made narrow, with the two legs, which are sometimes much elongated, parallel and close together, and thus it becomes well fitted for breaking through the ground.

 

With many kinds of plants, the radicle, whilst still enclosed within the seed and likewise after its first protrusion, lies in a straight line with the future hypocotyl and with the longitudinal axis of the cotyledons. This is the case with Cucurbita ovifera: nevertheless, in whatever position the seeds were buried, the hypocotyl always came up arched in one particular direction. Seeds were planted in friable peat at a depth of about an inch in a vertical position, with the end from which the radicle protrudes downwards. Therefore all the parts occupied the same relative positions which they would ultimately hold after the seedlings had risen clear above the surface. Notwithstanding this fact, the hypocotyl arched itself; and as the arch grew upwards through the peat, the buried seeds were turned either upside down, or were laid horizontally, being afterwards dragged above the ground. Ultimately the hypocotyl straightened itself in the usual manner; and now after all these movements the several parts occupied the same position relatively to one another and to the centre of the earth, which they

[page 90]

had done when the seeds were first buried. But it may be argued in this and other such cases that, as the hypocotyl grows up through the soil, the seed will almost certainly be tilted to one side; and then from the resistance which it must offer during its further elevation, the upper part of the hypocotyl will be doubled down and thus become arched. This view seems the more probable, because with Ranunculus ficaria only the petioles of the leaves which forced a passage through the earth were arched; and not those which arose from the summits of the bulbs above the ground. Nevertheless, this explanation does not apply to the Cucurbita, for when germinating seeds were suspended in damp air in various positions by pins passing through the cotyledons, fixed to the inside of the lids of jars, in which case the hypocotyls were not subjected to any friction or constraint, yet the upper part became spontaneously arched. This fact, moreover, proves that it is not the weight of the cotyledons which causes the arching. Seeds of Helianthus annuus and of two species of Ipomoea (those of ‘I. bona nox’

being for the genus large and heavy) were pinned in the same manner, and the hypocotyls became spontaneously arched; the radicles, which had been vertically dependent, assumed in consequence a horizontal position. In the case of Ipomoea leptophylla it is the petioles of the cotyledons which become arched whilst rising through the ground; and this occurred spontaneously when the seeds were fixed to the lids of jars.

 

It may, however, be suggested with some degree of probability that the arching was aboriginally caused by mechanical compulsion, owing to the confinement of the parts in question within the seed-coats, or to friction whilst they were being dragged upwards. But [page 91]

if this is so, we must admit from the cases just given, that a tendency in the upper part of the several specified organs to bend downwards and thus to become arched, has now become with many plants firmly inherited. The arching, to whatever cause it may be due, is the result of modified circumnutation, through increased growth along the convex side of the part; such growth being only temporary, for the part always straightens itself subsequently by increased growth along the concave side, as will hereafter be described.

 

It is a curious fact that the hypocotyls of some plants, which are but little developed and which never raise their cotyledons above the ground, nevertheless inherit a slight tendency to arch themselves, although this movement is not of the least use to them. We refer to a movement observed by Sachs in the hypocotyls of the bean and some other Leguminosae, and which is shown in the accompanying figure (Fig. 59), copied from his Essay.* The hypocotyl and radicle at first grow perpendicularly downwards, as at A, and then bend, often in the course of 24 hours, into the position shown at B. As we shall hereafter often have to recur to this movement, we will, for brevity sake, call it “Sachs’ curvature.” At first sight it might be thought that the altered position of the radicle in B was wholly due to the outgrowth of the epicotyl (e), the petiole (p) serving as a hinge; and it is probable that this is partly the cause; but the hypocotyl and upper part of the radicle themselves become slightly curved.

 

The above movement in the bean was repeatedly seen by us; but our observations were made chiefly on Phaseolus multiflorus, the cotyledons of which are like-

 

* ‘Arbeiten des bot. Instit. W�rzburg,’ vol. i. 1873, p. 403.

[page 92]

 

wise hypogean. Some seedlings with well-developed radicles were first immersed in a solution of permanganate of potassium; and, judging from the changes of colour (though these were not very clearly defined), the hypocotyl is about .3 inch in length. Straight, thin, black lines of this length were now drawn from the bases of the short petioles along the hypocotyls

 

Fig. 59. Vicia faba: germinating seeds, suspended in damp air: A, with radicle growing perpendicularly downwards; B, the same bean after 24 hours and after the radicle has curved itself; r. radicle; h, short hypocotyl; e, epicotyl appearing as a knob in A and as an arch in B; p, petiole of the cotyledon, the latter enclosed within the seed-coats.

 

of 23 germinating seeds, which were pinned to the lids of jars, generally with the hilum downwards, and with their radicles pointing to the centre of the earth. After an interval of from 24 to 48 hours the black lines on the hypocotyls of 16 out of the 23 seedlings became distinctly curved, but in very various degrees (namely, with radii between 20 and [page 93]

80 mm. on Sachs’ cyclometer) in the same relative direction as shown at B

in Fig. 59. As geotropism will obviously tend to check this curvature, seven seeds were allowed to germinate with proper precautions for their growth in a klinostat,* by which means geotropism was eliminated. The position of the hypocotyls was observed during four successive days, and they continued to bend towards the hilum and lower surface of the seed. On the fourth day they were deflected by an average angle of 63o from a line perpendicular to the lower surface, and were therefore considerably more curved than the hypocotyl and radicle in the bean at B (Fig. 59), though in the same relative direction.

 

It will, we presume, be admitted that all leguminous plants with hypogean cotyledons are descended from forms which once raised their cotyledons above the ground in the ordinary manner; and in doing so, it is certain that their hypocotyls would have been abruptly arched, as in the case of every other dicotyledonous plant. This is especially clear in the case of Phaseolus, for out of five species, the seedlings of which we observed, namely, P. multiflorus, caracalla, vulgaris, Hernandesii and Roxburghii (inhabitants of the Old and New Worlds), the three last-named species have well-developed hypocotyls which break through the ground as arches. Now, if we imagine a seedling of the common bean or of P. multiflorus, to behave as its progenitors once did, the hypocotyl (h, Fig. 59), in whatever position the seed may have been buried, would become so much arched that the upper part would be doubled down parallel to the lower part; and * An instrument devised by Sachs, consisting essentially of a slowly revolving horizontal axis, on which the plant under observation is supported: see ‘W�rzburg Arbeiten,’ 1879, p. 209.

[page 94]

 

this is exactly the kind of curvature which actually occurs in these two plants, though to a much less degree. Therefore we can hardly doubt that their short hypocotyls have retained by inheritance a tendency to curve themselves in the same manner as they did at a former period, when this movement was highly important to them for breaking through the ground, though now rendered useless by the cotyledons being hypogean. Rudimentary structures are in most cases highly variable, and we might expect that rudimentary or obsolete actions would be equally so; and Sachs’ curvature varies extremely in amount, and sometimes altogether fails. This is the sole instance known to us of the inheritance, though in a feeble degree, of movements which have become superfluous from changes which the species has undergone.

 

Rudimentary Cotyledons.—A few remarks on this subject may be here interpolated. It is well known that some dicotyledonous plants produce only a single cotyledon; for instance, certain species of Ranunculus, Corydalis, Chaerophyllum; and we will here endeavour to show that the loss of one or both cotyledons is apparently due to a store of nutriment being laid up in some other part, as in the hypocotyl or one of the two cotyledons, or one of the secondary radicles.

 

Fig. 60. Citrus aurantium: two young seedlings: c, larger cotyledon; c’, smaller cotyledon; h, thickened hypocotyl; r, radicle. In A the epicotyl is still arched, in B it has become erect.

[page 95]

 

With the orange (Citrus aurantium) the cotyledons are hypogean, and one is larger than the other, as may be seen in A (Fig. 60). In B the inequality is rather greater, and the