Size and Form in Plants: with Special Reference to the Primary Conducting Tracts

Abstract

THE physiological exchange which is inseparable from active life is conducted through limiting surfaces, external or internal. Provided the form remains unchanged, the bulk of a growing cell, tissue, or organ increases as the cube of the linear dimensions, the surface only as the square. Accordingly, as growth proceeds, the proportion of surface to bulk decreases, until a point of physiological inefficiency is approached. The simple cell solves the problem by division, producing new surfaces along the line of cleavage, but an equally effective solution is provided by appropriate change of form, the fluting or corrugation of the surface, the branching or segregation of the whole structure.

Size and Form in Plants: with Special Reference to the Primary Conducting Tracts.

Prof. F. O. Bower. Pp. xiv + 232. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1930). 12s. 6d. net.