420 MODIFIED dECUSrS'UTATION. Chap VIH 



rate of bending towards it, and the accuracy with 

 which they point towards its source, &c., will be 

 giren. Afterwards it will be shown — and this seems 

 to us a point of much interest — that sensitiveness to 

 light is sometimes confined to a small part of the 

 plant; and that this part when stimulated by light, 

 transmits an influence to distant parts, exciting them 

 to bend. 



Hdiotropism. — When a plant which is strongly 

 heliotropic (and species differ much in this respect) 

 is exposed to a bright lateral light, it bends quickly 

 towards it, and the course pursued by the stem is 

 quite or nearly straight. But if the light is much 

 dimmed, or occasionally interrupted, or admitted in 

 only a slightly oblique direction, 

 the course pursued is more or less 

 zigzag ; and as we have seen and 

 shall again see, such zigzag move- 

 ment results from the elongation or 

 drawing out of the ellipses, loops, 

 &c., which the plant would have de- 

 scribed, if it had been illuminated 

 from above. On several occasions 



Beta vulga ■•$: circnmna- «e WCTC mUch StrUck with this faCt, 



utionof hypocotvi de- whilst observing the circumnuta- 



flcctcd by the li^ht . j> i ■ i i 



being slightly lateral, tiou 01 highly sensitive Seedlings, 



T^'fZlt'Trt ''^'''^ ^e^e unintentionally illu- 

 5.30 p.m. Direction of the minatcd rather obliquely, or only 

 11"' wi*^''m„''^i:;!;!;t ^* successive intervals of time. 



shown by a line ioinin^ -ri„ . , j _.. 



the firstand penultimate ^°^ instance, two young seedlmgs of 



dots. Figure reduced to ^^i<^ vulgaris were placed in the middle 



one-third of the original of a room with north-east windows, and 



^""'^^ ■"'ere kept covered up, except during 



each observation which lasted for only a minute or two • but the 



result was that their hypocotyls bowed themselves to the side, 



whence some light occasionaUy entered, in lines which were' 



