MOVEMENTS OF SEEDLINGS. 35 



ment in Plants," he says, 1 " The chief object of 

 the present work is to describe and connect to- 

 gether several large classes of movement, common 

 to almost all plants. The most widely prevalent 

 movement is essentially of the same nature as that 

 of the stem of a climbing plant, which bends succes- 

 sively to all points of the compass, so that the tip 

 revolves. This movement has been called by Sachs 

 c revolving nutation,' but we have found it much 

 more convenient to use the terms circumnutation 

 and circumnutate. As we shall have to say much 

 about this movement, it will be useful here briefly 

 to describe its nature. If we observe a circum- 

 nutating stem, which happens at the time to be 

 bent, we will say towards the north, it will be found 

 gradually to bend more and more easterly, until it 

 faces the east ; and so onwards to the south, then 

 to the west, and back again to the north. If the 

 movement had been quite regular, the apex would 



or circumnutate, which is widely inherent in the growing parts of 

 plants. This conception has not been generally adopted, and has not 

 taken a place among the canons of orthodox physiology." 



Nevertheless the book is one of exceeding interest. One critic has 

 said, " No one can doubt the importance of what Mr. Darwin has done, 

 in showing that, for the future, the phenomena of plant movement can, 

 and indeed must be, studied from a single point of view." 



1 " The Power of Movement in Plants." By Charles Darwin and 

 Francis Darwin. New York : D. Appleton & Co. 1888. p. 1. The 

 references in this chapter are all to this work. 



