In several instances when the squares became displaced, so as to stand parallel to the radicle, or were separated by fluid from the apex, or soon fell off, fresh squares were attached, and these cases (described under the numbered paragraphs) are here included. Out of 55 radicles experimented on under the proper temperature, 52 became bent, generally to a considerable extent from the perpendicular, and away from the side to which the object was attached. Of the three failures, one can be accounted for, as the radicle became sickly on the following day; and a second was observed only during 11 h. 30 m. As in several cases the terminal growing part of the radicle continued for some time to bend from the attached object, it formed itself into a hook, with the apex pointing to the zenith, or even into a ring, and occasionally into a spire or helix. It is remarkable that these latter cases occurred more frequently when objects were attached with thick gum-water, which never became dry, than when shellac was employed. The curvature was often well-marked in from 7 h. to 11 h.; and in one instance a semicircle was formed in 6 h. 10 m, from the time [page 145] of attachment. But in order to see the phenomenon as well displayed as in the above described cases, it is indispensable that the bits of card, etc., should be made to adhere closely to one side of the conical apex; that healthy radicles should be selected and kept at not too high or too low a temperature, and apparently that the trials should not be made in the middle of the winter.
In ten instances, radicles which had curved away from a square of card or other object attached to their tips, straightened themselves to a certain extent, or even completely, in the course of from one to two days from the time of attachment. This was more especially apt to occur when the curvature was slight. But in one instance (No. 27) a radicle which in 9 h. had been deflected about 90o from the perpendicular, became quite straight in 24 h. from the period of attachment. With No. 26, the radicle was almost straight in 48 h. We at first attributed the straightening process to the radicles becoming accustomed to a slight stimulus, in the same manner as a tendril or sensitive petiole becomes accustomed to a very light loop of thread, and unbends itself though the loop remains still suspended; but Sachs states* that radicles of the bean placed horizontally in damp air after curving downwards through geotropism, straighten themselves a little by growth along their lower or concave sides. Why this should occur is not clear: but perhaps it likewise occurred in the above ten cases. There is another occasional movement which must not be passed over: the tip of the radicle, for a length of from 2 to 3 mm., was found in six instances,
* 'Arbeiten Bot. Instit., Würzburg,' Heft iii. p. 456. [page 146]
after an interval of about 24 or more hours, bent towards the bit of still attached card,--that is, in a direction exactly opposite to the previously induced curvature of the whole growing part for a length of from 7 to 8 mm. This occurred chiefly when the first curvature was small, and when an object had been affixed more than once to the apex of the same radicle. The attachment of a bit of card by shellac to one side of the tender apex may sometimes mechanically prevent its growth; or the application of thick gum-water more than once to the same side may injure it; and then checked growth on this side with continued growth on the opposite and unaffected side would account for the reversed curvature of the apex.
Various trials were made for ascertaining, as far as we could, the nature and degree of irritation to which the apex must be subjected, in order that the terminal growing part should bend away, as if to avoid the cause of irritation. We have seen in the numbered experiments, that a little square of rather thick letter-paper gummed to the apex induced, though slowly, considerable deflection. Judging from several cases in which various objects had been affixed with gum, and had soon become separated from the apex by a layer of fluid, as well as from some trials in which drops of thick gum-water alone had been applied, this fluid never causes bending.