I commenced my investigation on nyctitropism five years ago, after having perfected an apparatus for continuous record of the movements of plants throughout day and night. A contrivance, described further on, has been devised for obtaining a record of diurnal variation of temperature. I have also succeeded recently, in perfecting a device for automatic record of variation of intensity of light. It has thus been possible not only to obtain a continuous record of the diurnal movement of the plant, but also obtain simultaneous record of those changes in the environment which might have an influence on the daily movement. I have in this way collected several hundred autographs of different plants throughout all seasons of the year. The records thus obtained were extremely diverse, and it was at first impossible to discover any fundamental reaction which would explain the phenomenon. While in this perplexity my attention was directed two years ago to the extraordinary performances of the "Praying Palm" of Faridpore, in which the geotropic curvature of the tree underwent an accentuation during fall of temperature, and a diminution during rise of temperature.
The discovery of this new phenomenon led me to the inquiry whether Thermo-geotropic reaction, as I may call it, was exerted only on Palm trees, or whether it was a phenomenon of universal occurrence. I therefore extended my investigation on various geotropically curved procumbent stems of Ipœmia, Basella, and of Tropæolum majus. Here also I found that diurnal variation of temperature induced a periodic movement exactly similar to that in Palm trees.
I next wished to find whether the Thermo-geotropic reaction observed in stems was also exhibited by lateral organs such as leaves, which being spread out in a horizontal direction are subjected to the stimulus of gravity. I found that in a large number of typical cases, a periodic movement took place which was exactly similar to that given by rigid trees and trailing stems. A standard curve was thus obtained which was found to be characteristic not only of trees and herbs, but also of leaves. The stem and leaves fell continuously with the rise of temperature, from the minimum at about 6 in the morning to the maximum at about 2 p.m. They erected themselves with falling temperature from 2 p.m. to 6 a.m. next morning.
In the diurnal record of Mimosa I met, however, with an unaccountable deviation from the standard curve, for which I could not for a long time find an adequate explanation. Subsequent investigations showed that the deviation was due to the introduction of additional factors of variation, namely of immediate and after-effects of light.
COMPLEXITY OF THE PROBLEM.
I have already referred to the great difficulty of explanation of nyctitropism from the fact that the diurnal movements may be brought about by different agencies independent of each other. It is, moreover, not easy to discriminate the effect of one agency from that of the other.
The combined effects of different factors will evidently be very numerous. This will be understood from consideration of the number of possible combinations with only two variables, geotropism and phototropism. The effect of geotropism may be strong G, or feeble, g. Similarly we may have strong effect of light L, or feeble effect of light l. Light may exert positive phototropic action +L or negative action -L. Thus from two variables we obtain the following eight combinations:
G + L; G - L; G + l; G - l;
g + L; g - L; g + l; g - l.
The number of possible variables are, however, far more numerous as will be seen from the following:
Geotropism.—The effect of geotropic stimulus on horizontally placed organs is one of erection. But this stimulus, which is constant, cannot by itself give rise to periodic movements. It has however been shown that variation of temperature has a modifying influence on geotropic curvature (p. 519).