The movements are caused by the bending of an upper part of the petiole, between ½ and 1 inch in length; but the part close to the blade, for about 1/4 of an inch in length, does not bend and always remains at right angles to the blade. The bending portion does not present any external or internal difference in structure from the rest of the petiole. We will now give the experiments on which the above conclusions are founded.
A large pot with several plants was brought on the morning of Sept. 3rd out of the greenhouse and placed before a north-east window, in the same position as before with respect to the light, as far as that was possible. On the front of the plants, 24 leaves were marked with thread, some of which had their blades horizontal, but the greater number were inclined at about 45o, beneath the horizon; at night all these, without exception, became vertical. Early on the following morning (4th) they reassumed their former positions, and at night again became vertical. On the 5th the shutters were opened at 6.15 A.M., and [page 339] by 8.18 A.M., after the leaves had been illuminated for 2 h. 3 m. and had acquired their diurnal position, they were placed in a dark cupboard. They were looked at twice during the day and thrice in the evening, the last time at 10.30 P.M., and not one had become vertical. At 8 A.M. on the following morning (6th) they still retained the same diurnal position, and were now replaced before the north-east window. At night all the leaves which had faced the light had their petioles curved and their blades vertical; whereas none of the leaves on the back of the plants, although they had been moderately illuminated by the diffused light of the room, were vertical. They were now at night placed in the same dark cupboard; at 9 A.M. on the next morning (7th) all those which had been asleep had reassumed their diurnal position. The pot was then placed for 3 h. in the sunshine, so as to stimulate the plants; at noon they were placed before the same north-east window, and at night the leaves slept in the usual manner and awoke on the following morning. At noon on this day (8th) the plants, after having been left before the north-east window for 5 h. 45 m. and thus illuminated (though not brightly, as the sky was cloudy during the whole time), were replaced in the dark cupboard, and at 3 P.M. the position of the leaves was very little, if at all, altered, so that they are not quickly affected by darkness; but by 10.15 P.M. all the leaves which had faced the north-east sky during the 5 h. 45 m. of illumination stood vertical, whereas those on the back of the plant retained their diurnal position. On the following morning (9th) the leaves awoke as on the two former occasions in the dark, and they were kept in the dark during the whole day; at night a very few of them became vertical, and this was the one instance in which we observed any inherited tendency or habit in this plant to sleep at the proper time. That it was real sleep was shown by these same leaves reassuming their diurnal position on the following morning (10th) whilst still kept in the dark.
The pot was then (9.45 A.M. 10th) replaced, after having been kept for 36 h. in darkness, before the north-east window; and at night the blades of all the leaves (excepting a few on the back of the plants) became conspicuously vertical. At 6.45 A.M. (11th) after the plants had been illuminated on the same side as before during only 25 m., the pot was turned round, so that the leaves which had faced the light now faced the interior of the room, and not one of these went to sleep at night; [page 340] whilst some, but not many, of those which had formerly stood facing the back of the room and which had never before been well illuminated or gone to sleep, now assumed a vertical position at night. On the next day (12th) the plant was turned round into its original position, so that the same leaves faced the light as formerly, and these now went to sleep in the usual manner. We will only add that with some young seedlings kept in the greenhouse, the blades of the first pair of true leaves (the cotyledons being hypogean) stood during the day almost horizontally and at night almost vertically.