Fig. 165.—Diagrammatic representation of geo-electric response. The middle figure represents vertical position. In figure to the right rotation through +90° has placed A above with induced electric change of galvanometric negativity of A. In the figure to the left, rotation is through -90° A being below; the electric response is by induced galvanometric positivity of A. For simplification of diagram, vertical position of sepal is not always shown in the figure.
GEO-ELECTRIC RESPONSE OF THE UPPER AND LOWER SIDES OF THE ORGAN.
We have next to discover the electric change induced by geotropic stimulus on the upper and lower sides of the organ. For this purpose it is necessary to find a neutral point which is not affected by the inclination of the organ from vertical to horizontal position. For the present experiment, I employed the flower of the water lily Nymphæa, the peduncle of which is sensitive to geotropic action. One electrical contact is made with a sepal, which is always kept vertical; the other electric contact is made at the point A, on one side of the flower stalk (Fig. 165). On making connections with a sensitive galvanometer a very feeble current was found, which was due to slight physiological difference between the neutral point, N, and A. This natural current may be allowed to remain, the action current due to geotropism being superposed on it; or the natural current may be neutralised by means of a potentiometer and the reflected spot of light brought to zero of the scale.
Induced electric variation on upper side of the organ: Experiment 170.—While the sepal is held vertical, the stalk is displaced through +90° so that the point A is above. Geotropic stimulation is at once followed by a responsive current which flows through the galvanometer from N to A, the upper side of the organ thus exhibiting excitatory reaction of galvanometric negativity (Right-hand figure of 166). When the stalk is brought back to vertical position geotropic stimulation disappears, and with it the responsive current.
Electric response of the lower side: Experiment 171.—The stalk is now displaced through -90°; the point A, which under rotation through +90° pointed upwards, is now made to point downwards. The direction of the current of response is now found to have undergone a reversal; it now flows from A on the lower side to the neutral point N; thus under geotropic action the lower side of the organ exhibits galvanometric positivity indicative of increase of turgor and expansion (Left-hand figure 166).[35]
Having thus found that the upper side of the organ under geotropic stimulus becomes galvanometrically negative, and the lower side, galvanometrically positive, we make electric connections with two diametrically opposite points of the shoot A and B, and subject the organ to alternate rotation through +90° and -90°. The electro-motive changes induced at the two sides now became algebraically summated. I employ two methods for geotropic stimulation: that (1) of Axial Rotation, and (2) of Vertical Rotation.
Fig. 166.—Diagrammatic representation of the Method of Axial Rotation H, and of Vertical rotation V (see text).
METHOD OF AXIAL ROTATION.
In the method of Axial Rotation, the organ is held with its long axis horizontal (Fig. 166 H). We have seen that the geotropic action increases with the angle which the responding surface of the organ makes with the vertical lines of gravity. When the organ is held with its length horizontal, the angle made by its two sides, A and B, with the vertical is zero and there is thus no geotropic effect. There is, moreover, no differential effect, since the two sides are symmetrically placed as regards the vertical lines of force. The plant is next rotated round its long axis, the angle of rotation being indicated in the circular scale. When the rotation is through +90°, A is above and B below; this induces a differential geotropic effect, the upper side exhibiting excitatory electric change of galvanometric negativity.