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Darwin, Charles, 1809-1882

"The Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants"

The regular revolutions, from the ninth to
thirty-sixth inclusive, were effected at the average rate of 2 hrs.
31 m.; but the weather was cold, and this affected the temperature of
the room, especially during the night, and consequently retarded the
rate of movement a little. There was only one irregular movement,
which consisted in the stem rapidly making, after an unusually slow
revolution, only the segment of a circle. After the seventeenth
revolution the internode had grown from 1.75 to 6 inches in length,
and carried an internode 1.875 inch long, which was just perceptibly
moving; and this carried a very minute ultimate internode. After the
twenty-first revolution, the penultimate internode was 2.5 inches
long, and probably revolved in a period of about three hours. At the
twenty-seventh revolution the lower and still moving internode was
8.375, the penultimate 3.5, and the ultimate 2.5 inches in length;
and the inclination of the whole shoot was such, that a circle 19
inches in diameter was swept by it. When the movement ceased, the
lower internode was 9 inches, and the penultimate 6 inches in length;
so that, from the twenty-seventh to thirty-seventh revolutions
inclusive, three internodes were at the same time revolving.


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