Abstract
PROF. BOYSEN JENSEN'S new book upon “Growth Hormones in Plants” directs attention to the conclusion drawn by Charles Darwin “that when seedlings are freely exposed to a lateral light, some influence is transmitted from the upper to the lower part, causing the latter to bend”. Prof. N. Cholodny writes to the Editor from Kiev pointing out that a passage from “The Power of Movement in Plants” (1880) refers to the localization of phototropic sensibility in the tip of the coleoptile of Phalaris in these terms: “These results seem to imply the presence of some matter in the upper part which is acted on by light, and which transmits its effects to the lower part”. Prof. Cholodny points out that this passage might be interpreted as foreshadowing modern theoretical interpretations of the same tropic phenomenon as due to the movement of growth-legulating substances or hormones.
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Charles Darwin and the Modern Theory of Tropisms. Nature 139, 919 (1937). https://doi.org/10.1038/139919c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/139919c0