Page:Life Movements in Plants.djvu/207

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TEMPERATURE AND GROWTH
177

physical change due to temperature, and also of the change brought about by absorption of water. I should state here that for the method of continuous record of growth which I contemplated, the record had to be taken for about 18 minutes. The magnification had to be lowered to 250 times to keep the record within the plate. With this magnification, the fully grown specimen did not show in the record a change even of 1 mm. in length in 18 minutes, while the growing plant under similar circumstances exhibited an elongation of 100 mm., or more. In records taken with low magnification, the effect of physical change is quite negligible.

DETERMINATION OF THE CARDINAL POINTS OF GROWTH.

The cardinal points of growth are not the same in different plants; they are modified in the same species by the climate to which the plants are habituated; the results obtained in the tropics may thus be different from those obtained in colder climates. At the time of the experiment, the prevailing temperature at Calcutta in day time was about 30°C.

Temperature minimum: Experiment 59.—For the determination of the minimum, I took a specimen of S. Kysoor, and subjected it to a continuous lowering of temperature, by regular flow of ice-cold water in the outer vessel of the plant-chamber. Record was taken on a moving plate for every degree fall of temperature; growth was found to be continuously depressed, till an arrest of growth took place at 22°C (Fig. 64).

The arrested growth was feebly revived at 23°C, after which with further rise of temperature there was increased acceleration. The Optimum point was reached at about 34°C.