The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-08-26
THE BEING WITHIN The PLANT
A HTNDOO'S STUDY or SOME or
MANS DISTANT RELATIONS.

sluggish Animal shut Up In . Wooden
Box-It 10 Affected as Animals Are
Even In the Matter Of Drinking.
There Ia at the present time at the Presi-
d.ncy College at Calcutta a certain Hindu,
,Jaeadis Chunder Bose. His name sug-
oests the ancient and mysterious East.
Heis, on the contrary, q thoroughly modern
man OF science: one. moreover. whose In
y.stigations have earned him the atten-
tion OF the Western public. His papers
have been read before tho Royal Society
~ London and published In the journal
Of the Linnean Society.
He might have been an eminent inventor,
for he has an ingenious mind and q set Of
skilfll fingers. Instead he chose to be-
come a botanist; and the same talents
have been Of use to him In this field, for
science nowadays has become more than
ever a matter OF tools.
Prof. Bose has been especially skilful
IN inventing Instruments for observing
the activities OF common plants. COM
dictated and delicate machines for measur-
ing and recording the minutest change In
leaf or stem or root.
He wishes, for example, to study the
we'll known turning toward the light Of
green leaves. He hasa contrivance which
will detect the movement which a leaf
makes when q lighted match 10 held near
IL for only ten seconds.
A single fibre Of unspun silk as fine AZ
. oobweb connects the leaf with a delicate
Ieyer resting on friotionless supports Of
asate. This In turn carries a light mirror
from which a beam OF light Is reflected
TO a distant screen, a Photographic plato
Or a revolving drum.
The slightest movement Of the leaf turns
the mirror, and the motion Of the spot
ON the distant screen magniHes this move
mant BY any desired amount up to ten
thousand times. The apparatus is so
sensitive that It must be used while shut
inside a glass case and mounted on a special
support which does not touch the floor
Of the building.
Or again, Prof. Boee wants to MEASURE
the change in the rate OF growth which 10
brought about by altering the temperature
or the purity Of the air or by a change In
the amount OF light or water. He can not
only detect but measure the amount by
which an organ grows in Ave seconds. He
can discover a change In the rate Of growth
amounting to no more than the u ndredth
part OF even this small quantity.
BY means Of such refined methods as
these Prof. Bose has discovered among
other curious facta that plants rarely grow
steadily forward. Instead the growing
point seems to be feeling it's way out, ad-
vancing by short stages and drawing back
again not quite 80 far.
Thus, by way Of example, he attached
the thread from the lever Of his growth
recorder to the stalk which carries the
flower In a crocus and found that the stalk
grew tall by considerably less than the thick
ness Of a sheet Of tissue paper for the space
Of five seconds. After that 1t shrank down
again more slowly for five seconds more
until II had lost about half the increment.
Then after resting for ten seconds It
repeated the process. The growth pulse
oocurredi therefore, once In twenty seconds
but lasted only o~ne-quarter Of the time,
while only half the advance was retained
q permanent growth. et
Under other conditions the same plant
might retain t~hree-quarters Of each elonga-
ton, or again only ~one-quarter, and the beats
Of the growth were sometimes twice as
rapid as this and sometimes one-half. Prof.
Bose found also that the plant Is sluggish
With cold and becomes active only as it
warns up. It Is well known that plants
grow best at certain temperatures which
are neither too warm nor too cold.
In the chilly plant the growth pulse Is slow
and the increase in size corr~espondingly
small. As the tissues warm up the beat be-
comes faster and faster. Curiously, how
ever, the more rapid the alienation Of ad-
vance and retreat the more nearly are the
two equal in amount. In very hot weather,
khoroforo tha,,1h tha nlapt NAV ha varv
active it will often not grow at all. because
each swelling Of the tissue is just balanced
by the shrinking that succeeds it.
Prof. Bose finds that all sorts Of things
Affect the plant and modify its growth. A
seedling, for example, that had stopped
growing from drought began to grow again
when he applied a thimbleful Of water te its
roots, kept on for three minutes and then
stopped. Another thimbleful secured an
other three minutes OF growth; a third, a
fourth and a fifth three minutes more each.
The Seeding was like a slot machine.
One dropped a thimbleful Of water In the
pot and saw 1t grow for three minutes.
In general, ice water poured on the roots
Of a plant at once stops all growth. Hot
water proved to be 80 powerful a stimulant
that for few minutes after it was applied
the rate Of growth jumped often to twenty
five lines the normal amount.
Various drugs also have their effects.
Alcohol applied to the roots arrests the
growth II the solution Is at all strong. Light
beer causes a marked irregularity Of the
growth pulse, 30 that two or three violent
beats alternate systematically with as many
weak ones. In short, almost any agent,
from the burn Of a hot wire to a dose OF
whiskey, that will affect the motion Of an
animal will affect In a corresponding way
the growth Of a plant.
The resemblance between plants and ami.
mails does not by any means end here.
II appears that all the living parts Of oil
plants are in more or less constant motion.
The wood, Of course. does not move, nor
the bark; these are no more alive than the
hair and nails and shells and spinee Of ami.
mails. But the layer of living tissue between
the wood and the bark, where the sap Is,
contracts and relaxes, and tips OF the young
twigs and roots. where most OF the growing
ah done, turn and bend and twltch like the
limbs Of an animal.