UNIFORM, FATIGUE, AND STAIRCASE EFFECTS IO9 



there be noticed that the maximum contraction is attained in 

 tlie course of three minutes, after which there is a fatigue- 

 relaxation, which continues up to the eleventh minute. 

 There then occurs a second, though much feebler, response, 

 after which comes a slow and continuous reversal action. 



So-called * anomalous ' response in Mimosa. — In con- 

 nection with the subject of fatigue, I shall here enter upon 

 the explanation of certain well-known responsive effects in 

 the case of Mimosa which 

 have hitherto been regarded 

 as anomalous. It is generally 

 found that an erect leaf of 

 this plant is sensitive, that is 

 to say, when stimulated it 

 becomes depressed. In this 

 depressed position it is ap- 

 parently insensitive, hence 

 we are apt to assume that the 

 erect posture is one of sensi- 

 tiveness, depression indicating 

 the reverse. It will be found, 

 however, that if a Mimosa leaf 

 be continuously stimulated 



by successive blows or taps, ,,j^ ^^ photographic Records of 



in the manner of Pfeffer's Normal Response of Mimosa to 



, ^, I r -11 ^ Single Stimulus (upper figure), and 



experiment, the leaf will at ^^ Continuous Stimulation (lower 



first fall. But, though the (figure) 



blows be continued, the I" the latter case the leaf is erected in 



' spite 01 continuous stimulation, 



petiole will, after a time, 



return to its normal erect position. In this erect posture, 



however, further blows prove to have no effect upon it, the 



leaf being now insensitive. 



1 give above a photographic record of this effect in 



Mimosa (lower record, fig. 59), continuous stimulation in this 



case having been produced by tetanic electric shocks. It 



will be noticed that after its responsive fall the leaf returns 



to the erect position, in spite of the fact that stimulus is 



