Mountain Home maverick. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1906-1911, 1906-08-16
SCIENTIFIC
PLANT STUDY
Some Wonderful and In
tereSting Facts Devel---
oped Regarding Lower
Forms of Life.


appears in Ueber Land und Nicer.
1t begins by speaking of the revo-
luton in natural history effected
in Germany Tin common with the
other countries in which that theo-
ry has been accepted) by Darwin
ism, and what it has led to. The
adaptation of the instruction in
natural history in the German
intermediate schools to the progress
of the science in the last ten years,
no longer making the naming and
recognition of plants and animals,
and their ranging into systems, the
main point, but ''the introduction
of the pupils into the manifold phe-
nomena of iife,' will now, the
writer declares, for the first time
implant the genuine love and under
standing of Nature enduringly in
the rising generation.
For the first time, in the last
decade the plant was recognized in
its true nature. And in uninter-
rupted sequence since then, two
young yet aspiring sciences, plant
physiology and plant-ecology, have
made the surprised learned world
acquainted with what is new and
almost incredible; using the album
dance of intricate and most skillful-
ly adapted PHENOMENA of life which
show that the plants, apparently so
quiet, through sensation and kind
of experience share in life's Joy
and sorrow equally with all other
creatures. There was discovered
in quick succession in the higher
plants number of (partly even in
tricatc) organs of sensation which
prove that the plant is very notice
ably sensitive to pressure, to the
attraction of gravitation (scarcely
pcrceptible to us), to touchings, to
the proximity of nutritious sub
stances.
One of the most recent phyisolog-
ical discoveries has, however, not
yet gone beyond the specialists, and
yet it gives such a deep insight
into the strangeness and, according
to our other ideas, foreignness with
which the life of plants expresses
itself, that it must be of greatest
interest to the widest circles.
This is the form-perception (mor-
phaesthesia) of plants. This
strange name the Berlin botanist,
Prof. Roll, inflicted recently upon
the fact discovered by him, that
the position of their organs exerts
a stimulus upon plants. In exper-
iments with sprouts and young
specimens of the most varied food
plants, he noticed that on their
vertical or bow-shaped principal
root the little side roots are always
SO arranged that they stand only or
the convex side of the curvature
This strange behavior can be nc
accident, for it is found through.
out their distribution among all
examined plants as we'll a:
trees and shrubs. The laymar
would probably find in this behav-
ior only an interesting fact the bot
anist was forced to say to himself
that phenomenon of such univer
sal scope could only be the expires
sion of special obedience to law
Roll investigated it also in expert
mental ways, and forced roots int
certain artificial curvatures, will
such success that the new-formine
little side roots formed themselvc
again only on the outward-curveC
side of the principal root.
II thus appeared that the organs
of plants are bound to quite fixc'
mutual position; and this, all a
once, sheds light upon many rela
tions hitherto enigmatical. 1t ha'
long been noticed that all plant
have an appearance highly char
acteristic of them and exactly de
termined, i. G., brought about b,
the fact that, in all variability o
size, of leaf-forms, of exuberanc
in the development, yet the mutua
place of the branches, leaves, ant
blossoms is fixed with perfect regu
somewhat as different build
ings are obliged to correspond wit
each other, when they are built il
the same style. This was Gale
the habit of plants. 1t is uncon
sciously familiar to everyone school
ed in nature, for this habit il is b,
which from a distance the woods
man can distinguish, c. g., the fl
tree from the pine tree so like il
BY the most varied consideration
tthe discussion of which her
would lead too far), attention nov
came to be given to the question {
the single factor by which this hal
it is governed; and it was foun
that it is caused, first and foremos-